The Struggle For Survival
by LoinkWritesStuff
Summary: Steve is just a man trying to survive in a world full of monsters. For years, he has lived alone with only the company of his pet pig. But things change when he finds a populated village for the first time in a decade. It seems that now something is after him, and it is sending its minions to capture him. A single feature is that it has glowing white eyes... Is being rewritten.
1. Chapter 1: Just a typical day

**A Hero's Hope**

 **The Struggle For Survival**

"Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life." –TunaBomber

 _Do you sense it?_

 _Yes, I do…_

 _The Reader has clicked onto the link, and now the story of this world shall shortly begin…_

 _Or perhaps it has started again, depending on if this is the first time the Reader has opened this document…_

 _Yes, this being outside of our knowledge is one of the many unfortunate limitations of being the product of an inspiration…_

 _Nonetheless, I'm sure they must be confused as to who we are…_

 _Or perhaps they are not… Perhaps they already have begun to suspect who we are… Many of the readers have read the poem, you know…_

 _Yes… but allow me to explain ourselves just in case…_

 _Go ahead…_

 _We are what makes up the universe… We are what makes up humans…_

 _We are what dwells in your mind. In a way, we are what you are. But we are not you, you are us…_

 _We are what you think we may be, and at the same time we are what you suspect we are not…_

 _We are not the same as those who speak of the End Poem, rather, we are imitations of them…_

 _Yes, and we exist alongside the potentially real universe that contains a world called Minecraftia… A world with quite a history, both positive and negative…_

 _Yes… It is a troubled land indeed…_

 _And you may want to pay attention, Reader_ _, f_ _or there is a story beyond the story of the document you currently possess…_

 _If you do pay attention, you might be able to learn something knew…_

 _This story may change something within you…_

 _You might view Minecraft or even life itself in a different light…_

 _Of course, these are just mere predictions… This story may change the way you see the game, or it may not…_

 _That is up to the Reader…_

 _Reader, you may think we are droning on, and we must apologize… That is always looked down upon-especially when this is but the first installment of the series… But please have a little more patience, we are nearly complete…_

 _Reader, there will be some parts that you might not enjoy. That is to be expected in a fanfiction novel…_

 _Yes, many humans view various concepts of the game differently… Such as Steve and Alex being either siblings, or_ _romantic partners_ _…_

 _In this tale, Alex was the sister of our hero…_

 _How much more shall we speak? I sense the Reader may be growing impatient, but then again, they may be fascinated by us speaking as the storymaker's voice or for another reason. They may be getting annoyed at our flawed beliefs, however, there is no way of knowing for sure…_

 _There is so much more we wish to tell you, but alas, we must wrap this up before the story begins, and then we'll allow the Narrator to take it from there… Do you wish to share it?_

 _Yes… Reader, there is one more thing the storymaker would have us tell you before the story officially begins… The storymaker, he wishes for you to enjoy the story that he has prepared for you. He spent four years on this tale alone, and he gave up a lot in his life to piece it all together. He gave up too much, in fact, the foolish man. But if you, the Reader, do not enjoy this tale, then he insists that you do not read anymore of his tales if you do not wish to…_

 _Of course, you probably would not have anyways. But keep in mind that the storymaker has put everything he could into this novel, and he has tried as hard as he could to go through the story in the eyes of a reader so that he could perfect it. And that can be very difficult to pull off when you are the all-knowing creator of the story…_

 _Okay, I think the Reader has heard enough about the storymaker for now…_

 _One final thing, we will make quite a few appearances throughout the story. Our purpose is to either reveal hidden events, or inform the Reader or hero, or just offer the storymaker an excuse to change the perspectives of the characters throughout the series…_

 _Though, that will likely not be within this particular story…_

 _And yes, he is not ashamed to have us tell you this…_

 _Just remember to pay attention to the story and its series if you wish, so that you may unlock the lore of Minecraftia…_

 _And do not forget to leave a review. The storymaker has had a rough time on other internet s_ _i_ _tes getting his work reviewed. Without_ _criticism_ _, a work cannot be improved upon..._

 _Now, we shall speak no more. It is time for the Narrator to have their chance to explain the setting…_

 _Have fun, and turn to the next page to begin the tale… of Steve, the New Hero…_

 **Narration**

It was an average morning in the land of Minecraftia. The sun had just risen. The chickens were letting out their usual morning calls to signify the arrival of dawn. Clouds floated lazily across the sky. And in a house in a particular plains biome, Steve was just waking up.

Steve let out a yawn as he sluggishly crawled out of bed. He then began to stretch his arms and legs, then his neck. The bones in his body crackled as he stretched them out. He had a nice sleep last night, along with a pleasant dream. What that dream had been about, however, he had forgotten. Something to do with sheep and iron ore…

Steve's stomach rumbled and he realized he was starving. He had not eaten anything last night; he had been too tired after the long day of mining for resources. Steve headed over to his food chest and went through it, looking for something that might make a good breakfast. Steve wasn't in the mood for any bread or vegetables, so he pulled out an already-cooked steak, along with a slice of watermelon. Then, he sat back down on his bed and began to eat his meal, starting with the steak first.

Steve's belly filled drastically once he had finished off the meat, then he bit into the watermelon slice, tasting its sweetness in his mouth. Within a few bites, the melon slice was consumed, being made into fuel for his body to function.

Steve felt stuffed and wondered if he should rest for a few hours so he didn't get a stomach ache. But he ultimately decided to instead do something for today that wouldn't require a lot of effort.

After a couple minutes, Steve got back up and headed over by his farming supply chest. He opened it up and started looking the chest, taking out a couple seeds and potatoes to bring with him to his farm. Steve went outside and his pet pig ran up to him from his shelter, oinking happily at the sight of him. Steve smiled as the large pig came to him.

"Good morning, Joey." he greeted, and the pig nuzzled his leg affectionately. Steve gently moved his leg away from the pig and proceeded to head towards the farm.

"Let's see if any carrots are ready to be harvested…" Steve said to Joey, who squealed in eagerness.

Steve and his pig got over to the farm. It was pretty big for a farm-he believed it was an eight-by-seven, but Steve was glad he invested the time in making it. The farm provided him and Joey with just enough food to survive on a daily basis. A lot of the crops were ready to be collected and replanted, but he immediately noticed a lot of the carrots he had planted a few days ago were missing. Steve knew that Joey couldn't have uprooted them because the pig's feet weren't good at digging through soil. But there was one animal that was. Rabbits. Steve instantly recalled that rabbits lived around his house and he groaned. He knew that he should've put up that fence!

Four out of five of the carrots he had planted were gone, causing him to groan once more. Rabbits were a huge nuisance to him and Joey. He would've gotten rid of them one way or another, but whenever he tried to kill one, it would bound away too quickly for him to catch up. And if Steve had chased them off, they would come back the next day. At least Steve finally found out what he was going to spend the day working on.

Thankfully, the last carrot had grown enough to be harvested. Steve grabbed the plant and pulled it up, plucking the carrot out of the ground and two others along with it. He placed two of the carrots back into the ground at different soil blocks then squatted down and held the third one in front of Joey.

"You want it?" Steve teased, grinning. The pig oinked impatiently, putting his front feet on Steve's legs in order to get closer to the carrot. Steve let the pig steal it out of his hand and the pig munched on it. Joey snorted with contentment as he downed the vegetable, then gave Steve a face of joy. He gave the pig a warm smile and patted Joey on the top of the head.

Steve turned to look at the nearby oak forest. He knew he would have to cut down a lot of trees to make enough fences to surround his large farm. He also didn't want to leave his newly planted carrots unattended for the rabbits to steal.

"Joey, I'm going to need you to keep watch over the crops." Steve instructed, "If any rabbits approach, just squeal really loud and I'll come right back to chase it off." Joey nodded in understanding and trudged over the vulnerable vegetables.

Steve headed over to the forest, pulling out his stone axe. Upon arriving at the first tree, he swung the axe against its bark. Cracks formed and he continued to swing. Within a couple seconds, he had destroyed the tree's first bark block, then grabbed it with his second hand and put it away into his inventory, and then went to work on the rest of the tree. He had cut the tree into pieces in less than a minute.

Eyeing a second tree, Steve went over to it and began chopping it down to pieces, then moved on to a third. He destroyed the third one as well, taking the raw wood blocks with him, and felt something land on the top of his head. Upon reaching up, he grabbed the object and took a look at what had fallen onto him. It was an apple.

Steve could feel his stomach getting empty just by looking at its red surface shining in the sun-even though he had just had breakfast earlier. Chopping down trees did require quite a bit of effort. And the apple was as fresh as one could get. So, Steve put the apple into his left hand so he could eat it while he worked. Steve was planning to stop at twelve trees.

As Steve was striking a ninth tree, he heard the sound of panicked squealing. Instantly, he knew what that meant and put his axe away, replacing it with a stone sword. He turned back and sprinted to the farm as fast as he could. He could see Joey chasing a white rabbit around the place, squealing with outrage. The rabbit had a carrot in its mouth. Steve ran faster, frantic to keep the rabbit from getting away with their food. The pest didn't notice Steve until it hopped right in front of him. He tried to hit it with his sword, but the bunny leapt to his side and bounded past.

Steve took off after the animal, sprinting at the fastest pace he could manage. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joey running as fast as the pig could manage to the left of the bunny.

An idea formed in Steve's head and he pulled out something at random to throw. Steve got out an egg and threw it at the rabbit. The egg landed to the right of it, startling the creature into jumping to the left-directly into Joey. In that moment, the pig snapped at the carrot in its mouth and the two wrestled over it for a moment before the full-grown pig managed to pull the food out of its mouth.

Steve came in and grabbed the animal by the ears and lifted it into the air. The bunny tried desperately to break free, but he had a tight grip on it. Steve raised his sword, ready to kill the animal, when Joey's squeal grabbed his attention. He noticed Joey was repeatedly pointing one of his feet ahead. He wanted Steve to look, so Steve tried to see what the pig was pointing at. And then, he saw.

Shivering in a patch of grass were two snow-white little bunnies, staring straight at him with their redstone-red eyes. Fear was visible in the tiny animals' eyes. And that was when he realized that he was holding their mother. A third bunny joined the two-this one a creamy yellow, making it three babies. Steve wanted to kill the rabbit he was holding on to while he could. He hated how much of a burden they were to his life, and plus the rabbit could've made a pretty tasty stew. But knowing that he'd be indirectly killing the three baby rabbits as well, he just couldn't make himself do it.

Steve lowered the mother rabbit to the ground and she tried to bolt away, but with cat-like reflexes, he grabbed the rabbit by the foot. Steve pulled out a lead and attached it to her, removing the rabbit's ability to escape. He pulled out more leads and went over to the younger bunnies, getting ready to tie them to himself as well. They did not flee, which made things a whole lot easier for Steve.

"Joey, go back to the farm and replant that carrot, then watch over it." he ordered, "I'm going to relocate these bunnies." The pig snorted and went back in the direction of the farm. Steve gazed at the bunny family. Each of them eyed him fearfully as they huddled together.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." he assured in a calm tone, but his message didn't register with them. Steve realized they were wild animals-they didn't understand his language. It wasn't like Joey's case where he had learned to understand Steve's language over the course of years.

Steve headed off in the direction of where the birch forest was. The forest was pretty far away-it'd probably take half of the day to get there, and the other half to get back. But if he hurried, then he might've been able to get back home before the mobs came out tonight.

Steve stopped himself and realized he might as well kill two chickens with one cobblestone. He needed to map out the area around the forest, so Steve made a quick trip to his house and grabbed his unfinished map, along with an ink sac and a feather. He didn't grab any dyes-he would color in the map at a later time.

Once he was ready and set, Steve made his way towards the birch forest, tugging the animals along with him.

After much traveling, Steve finally arrived outside the forest. He unleashed the four rabbits. They were much more docile than earlier this morning, having learned their own way that Steve had no intentions of harming them. Upon being released, the animals steadily hopped around passively for a minute before the mom headed into the woods, the youngsters following close behind. Steve watched as the mother looked back at him a final time, then disappeared within the foliage. Hopefully, he had moved them a far enough distance so that they wouldn't return to his house. He looked up for the sun, and found it starting to head towards the horizon. Time was beginning to be a concern.

Steve took out his feather with one hand, an ink sac with the other. He put the feather with the sac and then crafted them into a feather with ink. Then, he brought out his map and began to walk back the way home, drawing the layout of the land as he went. He would have to color in the landscape at a later time.

By the time Steve made it back to his farm, the moon was appearing on the far end of the horizon. He could faintly hear the moans of the undead limping around him along with the hissing of spiders, but he couldn't see any mobs yet, which somehow made him even more nervous.

Joey was still standing guard over the carrots, which impressed him. Even though he had tried hard to teach the pig to obey him, in the end it was always Joey's decision. And Joey never liked to be out in the dark by himself. When the pig spotted Steve, he squealed with joy.

"Shhh!" Steve hushed quietly, "Joey, how about you go to sleep." Steve said to the pig, keeping his voice quiet to avoid attracting the attention of any mobs nearby. The pig grunted, slightly hurt, and went into to his small house Steve had built for him, pushing open the door, then kicking it shut to go to sleep for the night. Steve would've normally been happy with Joey, but this late at night was when mobs would appear. Steve placed down a crafting table and got to work, putting raw wooden blocks down to make planks, then making a ton of the planks into sticks.

All of a sudden, Steve heard a growl from in the woods behind him. A zombie emerged from the trees and slowly stumbled towards him, moaning with an animalistic groan. Steve started to panic, but reminded himself to stay calm and work. Zombies stumbled very slowly, so he still had some time to craft. He steadily arranged the sticks and planks in the correct order.

As the lurker of the night approached, Steve crafted the ingredients into fences. Then, he placed them in his off-hand. Steve drew his stone sword and swung the weapon to his right, the force of his movements turning his body around, and he knocked the zombie back before it could attack. The zombie flashed red and grunted with pain, but steadied itself and continued to limp closer to him.

Steve swung his sword again, this time hitting the undead being at its head, and the mob was knocked to the ground. He then finished it off with a stab of his sword down at it, causing the mob to disappear with a final grunt into smoke.

Steve knew it was only a matter of time before the next mob or mobs found him, so he quickly went to work and placed down fences around his farm. His farm was so large, and fences required a ton of wood to make, so Steve was not expecting to have enough.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a bow firing, followed by a projectile whistling through the arrow. And then, his arm was filled with pain as he felt an arrow penetrate through it. Steve had a difficult time keeping himself from crying out. He looked over to the edge of the forest and spotted the skeleton that was responsible for the arrow, and quickly placed the last fences he had, which turned out to be just enough to block off the entirety of the farm. Steve ran back towards his house, narrowly avoiding being hit by a second projectile. He had begun to hear the moaning of even more zombies when he had bolted inside and slammed the door shut.

Within seconds, there were zombies at his door. He could see them through the notches in the door as they pounded their fists against it, moaning their haunting defeated voices persistently.

Steve went away from the door and over to the crafting table by his bed. He sat down on the bed and set his injured arm onto the table, then braced himself. As fast as he could, he pulled the arrow out, wincing a little in the process, and then set the arrow down.

Steve laid back on his bed and sighed. His arm still hurt, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when that arrow was in. Feeling exhausted, he decided to skip dinner again and go straight to sleep to rest off the troubles of the day. He didn't even need to cover himself under the blanket. Within moments, he fell right to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Closed wounds reopened

**Steve's POV**

 _It was the day before my eighth birthday. I was in my home village. People interacted and went about their business. Alex and I were buying some bread from Farmer Bill like Mom had told us to. He gave us six loaves of bread in exchange for the one emerald Mom gave us. He smiled and put the shiny gem away._

" _Tell your mother I understand her situation, and that I hope that things work out for her. And tell her that there is always light at the end of the tunnel." Bill requested, his voice saddened._

" _Yes sir" we both innocently replied and turned around to head back towards our house._

" _I can't wait until your party." Alex smiled._

" _Yeah, I'm gonna get a lot of presents!" I grinned. I could only fantasize about what I might be getting._

" _Well, I can't wait for the cake." She clarified. "Mom says it's gonna be the best cake she's ever made!"_

" _I know!" I cheered, and then I walked right into a hard surface with a loud thud. "Ow…" I moaned, rubbing my head and looking at what I had ran into. It was the shining white body of Bob the Iron Golem. Bob looked down at me, studying me with his dark red eyes for a moment, and I heard Alex laugh._

" _You ran right into him!" she giggled. I scratched my head out of embarrassment. "Stevie, you can be so death sometimes…" she chuckled as we continued to head back._

" _Um… First off: Don't call me Stevie. Second, I think you meant blind. And third, it's deaf, not death." I corrected._

" _Are you sure?" she asked._

" _I think so…"_

" _Oh… I thought they were pronounced the same way…" she murmured, suddenly self-conscious, then straightened herself. "But who cares? You just ran right into that golem!"_

" _So?" I nervously muttered._

" _Aww, don't get upset. I didn't mean to laugh at you…" she apologized._

" _Thanks…" I replied._

" _Just kidding! Sorry Stevie, but that was hilarious!" she laughed._

" _You know what else was hilarious? The time you fell down a hole and landed in that cave." I recalled the memory with a smile. "You were crying like a baby while I went to get Dad!"_

" _You promised me you would forget about that!" she protested. I blinked in confusion._

" _No, I didn't. When did I ever say that?" I questioned._

" _Well… I'm pretty sure I remember you saying something like that…" she struggled to recall, "Or was that the other kid with you…"_

" _You mean Johnny?" I recalled._

" _Yes." Johnny's parents had decided to move away to some other village about a year ago and took him with them. We hadn't seen him since._

" _Yeah, you made Johnny promise. Not me." I smirked as we arrived at our house and went inside._

 _As a joke, I closed the door before Alex could enter. She tried to open the door, but I kept it closed._

" _MOM! Steve won't let me inside!" Alex whined from the other side._

" _Steven, let Alexandra into the house." I heard Mom's voice order in a motherly tone._

" _Fine…" I groaned and let go of the door handle. Alex opened the door and entered as I went to sit down on a chair block. Mom was putting some fish into the furnace, which blazed fiercely. Alex gave Mom the bread we got._

" _Thank you two for getting me the bread." Mom thanked._

" _You're welcome!" Alex beamed._

 _Dad burst through the door. He was covered in sweat-even his clothes were drenched. In his arm, he held his iron helmet he always had with him._

" _Hey family." He grinned. Immediately, Alex bolted to him. I got out of my seat and ran to join him as well. He embraced us in a hug._

" _Hey Alex, hey Steve." Dad greeted._

" _Hey Dad!" Alex replied, "You stink." This made Dad laugh a hearty laugh._

" _Yeah well, training in the sun with my fellow knights all day can be really tiring for your dad." He responded. "Especially when he's wearing armor all that time." Dad let go of Alex and me, then turned to me._

" _How was my boy doing today?" he asked as he wrapped his arm around my head and gave me a noogie. I tried hard to break free from the noogie, but was unsuccessful._

" _Steve was just fine today. He helped around the house a lot." Mom exclaimed. Dad let go of me and grabbed onto Alex next, making her the next victim of the dreadful noogie._

" _And how was my little girl?" he chuckled. I could see part of Alex's face under Dad's arms-she was just as annoyed as I had been._

" _Alex was… alright. A little hyper, but she wasn't too obnoxious." Mom explained._

" _That's good to hear!" he chuckled, then freed her and stood up. "Anyways, I gotta go bathe. I'll be back in fifteen to twenty minutes." He said to Mom._

" _Okay, don't forget to use a sponge this time. We'll smell your stench if you don't." Mom reminded, a smile on her face._

" _I know, dearie…" Dad assured._

" _And Notch knows we can't take any more of your noxious fumes…" she joked. Alex and I both laughed at her funny sense of humor._

" _Well, that's disappointing…" he chuckled. "Alright, I'm gonna go." Dad went out, but not before Mom sighed and threw a sponge at the back of his head, knocking Dad's head forward a bit. He turned around and picked up the sponge. "Oops." Dad muttered and put on a cheeky grin, then stepped out._

" _Honestly, your dad can't seem to do squat sometimes." Mom sighed, "He's pretty much only good about thinking with his muscles, not with his brain… Dad is lucky he has Mom to keep him from getting into too much trouble." She murmured to herself._

 _I suddenly realized what this was. This wasn't reality-this was a dream. And one with my parents, as well as Alex, when in reality, they were all dead…_

" _Mom, I love you." I said, rushing to her side and hugging her waist. I could feel tears beginning to form at my eyes. Mom appeared to be surprised by this, but she looked away from the furnace and hugged me back._

" _I love you too, Steven." she said warmly._

" _Whoa, Stevie, why are so clingy to Mom all of a sudden?" I heard Alex ask, but didn't respond. I kept hugging my mom until I felt my consciousness begin to slip away. And then the dream faded to white, and whether it was because I changed the memory dream or by timing, I didn't know._

I woke up to see the rays of the sun shine through the windows of my house. I also noticed a large pig standing over me, a large grin on his face. No doubt Joey was excited about today, but I felt horrible after the dream I just had. It had reopened a fresh wound that I had tried to close.

"Hey… Joey…" I tried hard to keep a straight face, but the pig must've noticed I was upset. His smile disappeared and he oinked in concern.

"I had a dream… about my family…" I explained to him. Instantly, Joey's face took on a sad and sympathetic look. I sat up and tried hard not to tear up, but after a few seconds, it was clear that I couldn't suppress my sorrow. I wrapped my arms around Joey and buried my face in his neck, sobbing deeply.

"I miss Mom…" I mumbled, "I miss Dad… I miss Alex…" Joey snorted pitifully.

I still remembered the day my parents died. It was easily one of the worst days of my life-comparable to only the last day that I saw Alex.

After a moment, I lifted myself off of my pig friend and jumped out of my bed.

"Thanks for supporting me Joey…" I sniffled and wiped away the tears. He grunted, and I imagined he was trying to tell me a comforting message, like how he cared about me or something like that.

"Alright, I think I'm going to go mining for today." I said as I went through the chest that contained my mining equipment. I heard Joey groan with boredom while I pulled out a clock and stuffed it away into my inventory.

"I know, it's a long and boring job, but only one of us is capable of doing it." I reminded him, "And we need the iron. My sword's almost busted, and I want to go back to using iron weapons." I found half a stack of torches and my trusty iron pickaxe and stowed them into my inventory with me. Then, I grabbed a few blocks of cobblestone. I had learned a while ago(the hard way unfortunately…) that it was always a good idea to have some kind of blocks with me so I could block off any lava pools I dug into.

My stomach growled rather viciously and I realized I didn't eat again last night. Going through my food chest, I pulled out several loaves of bread. Bread was always good for mining(not nearly as good as steak, but I was starting to run low on them).

I turned to Joey, "Alright, I'm gonna go. You can let yourself out using that entrance that you have that you never show me so that I can keep baby zombies from getting into the house." I told him, then headed into the stairway that went deeper underground. I stuck my head out from ground level before I went down further. "Even though I could just stop them from getting in by placing slab blocks so that you could still be able to squeeze through-" Joey squealed defensively, and I took the hint. "Alright, see ya later tonight." I said and went underground.

"Poor Joey…" I muttered as I jumped down each block. He must've really wanted to play with me for today. I probably would have played with him too, if it wasn't for that really emotional dream I had. I knew that would've been all I could think about while I played Potato Toss with him. Better to push a play day for some other time when we both can enjoy it than on a day when only one can.

I made it to the bottom layer to where my strip-mine was and headed down the corridor.

After about two minutes, I made it to the end and went through my inventory, putting my trusty pickaxe in one hand and my torches in the other. And then I proceeded to mine.

It took several minutes before I struck a patch of coal. But I didn't need any more coal, so I just mined straight through(I still picked up the excess coal anyways).

A moment later, I came across a strain of lapis lazuli. Excitedly, I mined away at the dark blue mineral chunks. I knew that lapis was useful for enchanting objects with an enchanting table, and although I didn't have an enchanting table, I planned to get some diamonds so that I could make one. And even if I couldn't find any diamonds today, I could still use the lapis as dye. Taking out my clock, I could see that it was still around midday. Sighing, I pocketed the lapis and dug even more.

Much later, I uncovered a cluster of redstone. The red material glimmered in the light of my torch. I didn't have any current use for redstone, but I always saved resources for whenever a time might come when I would need it-such as brewing. But unfortunately, I still needed to find a way to craft a brewing stand. Once that happened, then I could finally put all the redstone to good use. I mined away at the pretty red powdery ore blocks and stuffed them all away in my inventory, then went back to mining through the interior of the underground, thinking about the last time I had a brewing stand as I went along.

It was when I lived in my last home. I missed that place; it had been a cozy little hut that faced an enormous round lake. The house had sat right at the foot of a huge mountain, too. Even more, it had been right next to the ocean, and every morning I would wake to the crisp scent of salty seawater. I remembered that I had actually gotten the blaze rod for my first brewing standing in a really weird way; I had actually hooked it while I was out fishing one morning.

I wished I had never dug into that large cavern under my home and accidently flooded the house with creepers and zombies. Joey and I lost so much of our belongings that day. We had to start from scratch with getting resources all over again.

My pickaxe clanked as I struck gold-literally. I scowled at the sight of the precious metal. Years ago, gold had some value in the village that used to be near my parents' former home. But ever since the world went downhill, gold became a lot more of a nuisance. I just couldn't use it to make anything useful other than a clock. I heard a long time ago that gold blocks were used to craft mythical Notch apples, but they were no-longer craftable immediately after the Diamond War ended years ago. According the priest I heard it from, it was because too many people were creating Notch apples and becoming unstoppable and dangerous. But where were the diamonds? Today, I had come across just about every mineral that formed deep underground(except for emerald and surprisingly, iron), and I still hadn't found a single diamond.

Just then, my pickaxe bit into a slightly pinkish ore. Definitely iron. I prayed it was a large patch too. I could finally make a new set of iron armor again. I continued to mine as much of the iron ore as I could find.

Unfortunately, the cluster wasn't nearly as big as I wanted it; it was only five blocks instead of nine like I needed. But on the bright side, at least I could make one or two articles of armor. And I planned to make at the minimum a chestplate.

Taking out my clock once again, I cheered at the sight of the moon covering huge portion of the clock's surface. It was nighttime, and that meant that the day was over. I placed down a last torch on the wall and then turned around headed back.

After a few minutes of backtracking, I made it back into my house. Looking out one of the windows, I could see a creeper staring back at me, silently wishing for me to take a step outside. My body shuddered and I went away to one of my furnaces.

Taking out my five iron ore blocks, I stowed them inside the furnace. Instantly, the stone oven ignited with blazing fire as it got to work smelting away at the ore.

I went over to the chest that contained all my mined goodies and took out the three iron ingots that I had. Then, I went back and waited for the ore to finish smelting.

Once the five ores were ingots and the fire was out, I reached into the furnace and pulled them out. They were still very hot, but not enough to burn my hand. While carrying the metal bars to my crafting, I pondered whether I really should make a chestplate. If I did, I couldn't make a new iron sword like I direly needed. I knew I could've just made some boots or a helmet instead and got to make a sword, but I really wanted a chestplate to cover my chest.

Ultimately, I decided to go ahead with the chestplate. I set one ingot in each position on the crafting table until they were ready to be transformed into the piece of armor. Then after a second, the eight iron ingots shot together and an iron chestplate materialized. Excitedly, I grabbed the armor part and equipped it, feeling less weak and vulnerable and more confident.

I felt my stomach rumble and began to feel famished. I went through my food chest to look for a meal and found a cooked chicken and quickly took it out, then ate it. The delicious poultry filled my belly up to full and I finally went over to my bed, feeling the exhaustion begin to settle in. Then, I passed out on the surface of my resting place.

 _We were at the dinner table. It was my eighth birthday. Alex and I were sitting eagerly in our seats. Mom was getting the cake ready to bring to the table, and Dad was bringing my present from outside._

" _What do you think you're going to get, Stevie?" Alex asked._

" _I don't know." I answered, "I hope it's something cool though!"_

" _You're about to find out." My mom said softly as Dad opened the door, carrying a big chest in his arms. "Daniel, you ready?"_

" _Yeah, just let me set this thing down…" he grunted, and lowered the chest to the ground with a thud. Then, Mom began to sing the birthday song, which confused me. Normally, we opened the present first before singing. Dad took a moment to join her and looked surprised too. Mom lifted the cake and slowly came over to us with it while singing. Alex joined in on the song._

" _Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you." They sang. I felt an uncontrollable smile cross my face while listening to them. "Happy birthday dear Steven-" Alex still said 'Stevie,' which slightly threw off the melody, "Happy birthday to you!" Alex then yelled "Cha, cha, cha!" and Mom set the cake in the middle of the table._

" _Hey, Maria. Shouldn't Steven open his chest first?" Dad pointed out._

" _Oh, I'm surprised I forgot…" she stammered._

" _Hey, don't worry about it." Dad assured her with one of his grins._

 _Dad turned back to me. "It's time to give the birthday boy his present!" he cheered gruffly as he went back to the chest and lifted it up. Mom moved the cake to the side just in time as Dad dropped it right in front of me. "When you're ready, just push it open!" He grinned and I knew instantly whatever was in the box was going to be a great gift. I grabbed the chest and shook it lightly, hearing something thud from within the container, but was unsure of what sound it was._

" _You might not wanna shake it too badly," Dad suggested, "you don't want to damage whatever's in there." I pushed the lid open and tried to get up higher so I could see what was inside, but was still too low. And then I heard a tiny oink. Suddenly, a large pink block popped out from the chest and turned to look around. No, not a pink block, a pink head. I gasped. It looked like… a pig._

 _The pig jumped out of the chest and looked around. It looked to be a baby pig. The pig looked at me and I couldn't speak. I was so excited! The pig went over to me and nuzzled my cheek, snorting a lot. I wrapped my arms around it and hugged it closely._

" _Thank you so much!" I felt tears form at the corners of my eyes. I had wanted a pet for so long now!_

" _Your welcome, Steven." Dad smiled warmly. Then he looked over to Mom. "The village butcher found him in one of the pig pens. He was reluctant to put a baby pig in the slaughterhouse, so he contacted me." he explained. "So I decided to get you a pet, since you'd always wanted one. I even bought it at a pretty cheap price-only three emeralds!"_

" _Just three!?" Mom gasped in shock._

" _Yeah, he wanted to get some money by selling the pig, but he really didn't want to have to kill it, so he put it at a really cheap price."_

" _I love him!" I cheered as I kept the pig in my arms. "I love him, I love him, I love him!"_

" _He's so adorable!" Alex agreed. "I want my own pet for my birthday! I want a doggy!"_

" _Well, maybe we can do something about that for your next birthday…" Mom grinned._

" _Yes!" she cheered, raising a fist in the air._

" _Here's a carrot." Dad said, holding a carrot out for me to grab. "Pigs love to eat them a lot."_

" _Thanks!" I let go of the pig and took the carrot, then held it out for the pig to eat. He let out a joyful squeal and yanked the food out of my hand, then munched on it. I laughed giddily._

" _What do you want to name it?" Dad asked. I stared at the pig. He stared back at me, still chewing on the carrot, and I knew instantly what I wanted to name him._

" _Joey!" I shouted, "Joey the pig!"_

" _Steven, that's a wonderful name!" Mom praised._

" _I know!" I grinned._

" _Okay, I'm really hungry. When are we gonna eat the cake?" Alex asked, rubbing her rumbling tummy._

" _I suppose we can get started right now, while Joey hasn't noticed the cake yet." Dad assured, "Since we already sang the birthday song." Mom lured the pig off the table with another carrot and we proceeded to grab slices of the cake and eat. It was the most delicious thing I had tasted in a year. The cake was so sugary and sweet that I craved for the next bite. My mouth filled with juicy flavor whenever I bit into a red piece._

 _Before I knew what had happened, I had already finished off my first slice. Then, I grabbed my last slice and began to eat it._

 _When we were done with the cake, Mom looked outside, which I noticed was dark._

" _Wow, it's already night." She noted. "Alright, I think you two should get ready to go to bed. Tomorrow you can have fun playing with Joey."_

" _Aww man…" we both moaned. I had really wanted to play with him now, and I was sure Alex did too. But reluctantly, we both got up and went into our own rooms for the night._

 _Once I was in my bed, I covered myself in my red sheets and tried as hard to go to sleep. It was hard after all the excitement, but after several minutes, I managed to clear my mind. Moments later, I drifted off to sleep._

 _Suddenly, I was awoken by someone shaking me and realized it was Alex. "Steve, wake up!" she whispered. She sounded scared._

" _What?" I groaned, rubbing my tired eyes._

" _Steve, it's Mom and Dad… They sound really upset-like really upset." she revealed._

" _Why?" I asked._

" _Just come with me!" She yanked me out of bed and brought me over to the door. "Listen…" I tried to listen._

" _There's a lot more of them than I've ever seen Daniel…" Mom's faint voice stammered. "We need to take the kids and get out of here…"_

" _Maria…" Dad's weak voice called, "we can't leave now… It's midnight… and besides, I love this house…"_

" _Daniel, I know this house means a lot to you. I know it's where you've grown up your whole life. But I'm telling you, there is practically an entire army of mobs out there…"_

" _Maria, it's okay. They don't know how to use doors, so they can't get in…" Dad protested._

" _Did you not hear what that person from the village just said? He said that creepers… exploding… to break through… other townsfolks' houses… as if something is telling them to do it…" I couldn't hear part of what she said, but I got the gist. "This house won't last…"_

" _But honey… This house has more than just memories… It also has an underground… that holds a very valuable artifact from the age of the Great Hero…" Dad argued, "My father told me never to abandon this house… not under any circumstances!"_

" _Daniel… we're running out of time! The village has already been overrun! Notch knows how much longer we have!" Mom was starting to raise her voice._

" _Maria, I promise you, no matter what, I will protect you and the kids with my life…" Dad promised. My heart was beating out in fear. Something bad was about to happen-I just knew it… as if I had already gone through this before…_

" _Damn this, Daniel! You can't protect us from an army of those… things!" Mom's voice began to get closer, as if she was approaching our room. "Either you come with us-" Suddenly, the door opened and she was standing there, "-or I'm taking the kids and leaving without you!"_

" _Mom? What's going on-" Mom cut me off._

" _Hush. Mommy is going to take you two somewhere safe…" she said and grabbed me and Alex in her arms with some effort. She brought us into the living room, where Dad and Joey were. When Dad saw us in Mom's arms, his face turned angry._

" _Maria, you're being hysterical! I won't let those mobs get anywhere near you or the kids!" he shouted. "I'm a veteran knight, I know I can protect you!"_

" _Daniel, your arrogance is the one thing I don't like about you! You're always too cocky, you think you can defeat anything and everything that threatens our way of living! But you're wrong! An entire army of monsters that want to kill you, me, our son, and our daughter is on its way. There's more than of them than you can ever fight. The rest of village doesn't stand a chance, so what makes you think this place is going to!? I want to leave with my babies before we are forced to see what those mobs will do to you!" Mom hollered._

 _Suddenly, I heard the faint sound of a hiss outside our house. Mom and Dad froze instantly, and Joey ran away from the wall, squealing in fear. Then, a deafening explosion rocketed the home. I cried out in shock and fear of the of sudden explosion, as did the pig._

 _Where the blast came from, there was a large hole in the wall. I started to see through the hole different creatures in the distance, growing closer._

" _See, Daniel? This house is done for! We have to go now!" Mom pointed out._

" _But…" he stammered. I looked back at Dad._

" _Dad, please come with us!" I pleaded._

" _Yeah, we don't want to lose you!" Alex agreed. He looked very conflicted. Then, after a moment, he shook his head._

" _Fine… We need to go now!" he declared, "Give me Alex, I'll get the pig as well." Dad ordered as he scooped up Joey. Mom nodded and let Alex run over to him._

" _Let's go." Mom said as she threw the door open and ran out. Dad followed close behind. I started to hear moaning and hissing somewhere to our side. My heart was pounding in terror. I was scared for my life._

 _Mom was running towards a forest, panting as she carried me. Dad sprinted close behind._

" _Mom… I'm scared…" I whimpered._

" _Mommy is too, Steven…" she panted, "But neither Mommy or Daddy are going to let anything happen to you or your sister."_

 _Just then, a spider appeared from out of nowhere and lunged at us. Mom barely jumped out of the way. I heard Dad yell angrily behind us at the spider. Then, I saw a skeleton walk out from behind a tree and ready its bow, aiming it straight at me. I wanted to scream, but couldn't. I was too scared. The skeleton shot an arrow and the arrow flew straight towards me._

 _Mom suddenly turned me away and I saw her entire body flash dark red as the projectile pierced into her. She winced but didn't cry out. Instead, she put me down and drew a bow, then readied an arrow and shot the arrow back at it, causing the skeleton to fall to the ground, writhing in pain. Then, it died and turned into smoke._

 _I heard a hiss before I was smothered in darkness. My body filled with pain for a second before the blackness was lifted off by my mom. I realized it was a spider that she quickly killed with another arrow._

" _Are you okay?" she asked, lifting me and holding my head up to her shoulder. "I shouldn't have left you like that…"_

" _Maria!" Dad's voice called out. He appeared from behind a tree. His body had three arrows all over it. Thank goodness, he still had a very much panicking Alex and Joey. "We shouldn't have gone into the forest! We need to get out of here now!"_

" _I agree. Let's head this way-" Suddenly, a zombie lunged onto her and knocked her down. I fell away from Mom._

" _Maria!" Dad roared and dropped the two, quickly drew his iron sword, and slammed the monster off of her. It growled and limped towards him, and he swiftly struck it two more times, ending the monster. The entire forest seemed to shake as faint moaning echoed all around us. Dad went over to us._

" _Are you okay?!" he stammered. She groaned in pain and got back up._

" _Yes, I'm fine…" she assured._

" _Good, 'cause now every zombie in this forest knows where we are. Help me carry the kids." he ordered. Mom grabbed me again while he went to grab the other two. But as he was going back to them, I saw a bright green creature approach him._

" _Dad!" I screamed and he looked back to see the creeper swell up and explode._

 _I heard him cry out in pain and when the sulfurous smoke cleared, there was a massive smoking crater. Thankfully, Dad was knocked away and wasn't hurt that bad. He got up and began to run for Alex and Joey when suddenly a spider lunged onto him. Alex screamed in terror at the sight as a second spider jumped onto him, knocking him to the ground. Dad struggled to push each away with each of his hands._

" _GO!" he roared through his strained groans as the spiders hissed eagerly. "Maria, take the kids and go on without me!" Mom held me and sprinted over to Alex, lifting her up to her other shoulder. Then, Mom began to run back the way we came from, away from Dad. Joey followed us, his big eyes were filled with just as much terror as I was sure mine were._

" _What about Dad!?" Alex yelled, her voice completely desperate._

" _Daddy's a tough man. Those mobs stand no choice against him…" Mom answered, though I knew with daunting certainty that she was lying. Mom continued to run past all the oak trees of this forest of evil monsters._

 _All of a sudden, a green zombie appeared from behind one of the trees, holding its arms out weakly. Mom jumped out of its reach, nearly launching me. Another zombie appeared from another tree and grabbed onto my arm._

 _I screamed in terror and desperately tried to yank my arm away from the groaning monster. She kicked at the zombie's legs and knocked it down. Then, a spider pounced at us and slammed against Mom, taking the three of us to the ground. I groaned, dazed and disoriented for the moment, and Alex pulled me to my feet. Together, we pushed the spider off of our mom. She quickly got up, but a zombie grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the ground. Then, another went down onto Mom. She began to flash red and cried out with pain as the spider joined in._

" _Steven… Alexandria… RUN!" Mom ordered as the mobs viciously attacked her. "Run and don't stop running until dawn!" Scared for our lives, I grabbed Joey and we took off with Alex, sprinting at full speed through the forest._

" _I love you both…" was the last thing I heard my mom say._

I shot up immediately from my bed. The sun was shining through the windows. My body and chestplate were drenched in sweat. And I remembered my dream. Instantly, I couldn't take it anymore. I broke down into tears. I had just relived my second worst memory I had ever had. Why was I being put through this? I couldn't take all this grief. For the past couple weeks, my sleep consisted of nothing but reliving memories-good and bad.

After several minutes, I got out of bed and headed outside, ignoring breakfast since I already ate last night before sleeping.

The warm sun shined, lighting up the world around me. Joey ran up to me, excited to see me. I looked down at him with a sad smile. Out of everyone in our family, he and I were the only ones to live this long. And Joey was the last gift my father had ever given me, which made me more depressed, but at the same time, it made me feel a bit more blessed. Without Joey, I don't think I would have had the will to live through all these hard times.

"Hey Joey… You wanna go exploring today?" I suggested. He grunted happily in response. "Great!" I pulled out my unfinished map and looked at where we were, then lowered it to Joey's height so he could look at it. I showed him an unfinished portion to the northeast. "We should go that way. I got a good feeling that we might find something cool over there, like maybe a jungle or large spruce tree biome!" Joey squealed in excitement.

We started to head off to the northeast, but I changed course and headed for our farm. It was completely sealed off by fences and had no gate, so I just broke through one of the fences. I was happy to find that two of the carrot patches had grown fully and harvested them, getting six whole carrots! Planting four of them back into the ground, I left my farm and closed it off again with the fence. I knew I should've just went inside and crafted myself a fence gate, but whenever we went exploring we always got back home just as nighttime was setting in. We had to waste no time.

"Hey Joey, here buddy." I grinned and tossed him one carrot. He grinned and caught it in his mouth, then crunched down on it, snorting out loud with content. We headed out.


	3. Chapter 3: A new discovery

**Hey guys, so I've noticed that this series has been getting a lot of attention so far. That's awesome! And I wanted to let you know a few things before you read to help with the story's setting. When writing this series, I had Minecraft: Story Mode in mind, so while reading, try imaging that it takes place in the same kind of world.**

 **Second, Some of you commented about how fast I was at completing and posting the second part to the story. Well, while I'm flattered by the praises, they aren't true. See, before I started on this website, I was on an author website trying to publish my story, and I had finished my entire first book there. That's why I'm posting one chapter a day.**

 **Welp, that's all I really wanted to say. It's awesome to see that my story has been getting so much attention, and I want to thank the people who've been leaving reviews and compliments, you guys are great! Well, I'll stop babbling and let the story continue on. Enjoy!**

Once we passed through the entire forest, there was in fact a jungle biome, which I couldn't believe I actually got right. Jungles biomes were so scarce, that I hadn't seen one in over two years. There were watermelons scattered across the ground in a cluster and cocoa pods hung up all across the gigantic trees, both of which I instantly broke into pieces and took with me. There were ocelots all around us too! Whenever I approached one, it would sprint away at the sight of me.

I had found out that they liked to play with Joey when I wasn't around-while I was away breaking some watermelons, I managed to see through the shrubbery two ocelots chasing Joey playfully and vice versa.

Unfortunately, we reached the edge of the jungle biome without finding an ancient temple that was rumored to exist in the jungle. I was disappointed by that, but not that much. I had found jungle biomes a total of three times now throughout the past ten years and not found one temple.

I hadn't even tried to sketch out the landscape of the jungle on my map. There was just way too much different terrain for me to want to try. Instead, I just drew a large square around where I was and colored it all in dark green, then labeled it 'Jungle'. I then captioned it, writing 'Explore the entirety of it later.'

I would've normally stayed and explored the rest of the biome to be sure there was no temple, but I had gotten the jungle prediction right. I wanted to try my luck and call the next big thing we would find.

We were in a plains biome that had a lot of hilly terrain. I knew there was nothing of interest here, so I was determined to get through in as little time as possible.

"Let's go, Joey." I said, beginning to shuffle along quickly. Joey kept up pace with me as we rushed through the boring biome.

"I'm predicting the next biome will be a… forest of some kind. Maybe a birch one." I decided. I didn't know whether I was a good gambler or not. I suppose I had gambled my life on quite a lot of risks throughout these past ten years, so maybe I was…

I suddenly realized that the sun was veering dangerously close to the horizon and mentally scolded myself. I couldn't believe I let my excitement distract me from the plan. Now we were going to have to stay out for the night!

"Joey, let's go look for a place that we can easily set up a hut for the night." I tried to keep my voice calm. The pig grunted anxiously as the sun sped closer to the horizon. Within moments, I could see the moon far behind us. And that was when I noticed something odd in the far distance ahead of us. It looked like… a house?

"Joey… do you see that?" I gasped. He looked ahead and grunted with shock, jumping back half a block.

"Let's go check it out!" I said, running towards the structure. Joey ran close behind me.

As I got closer, I stopped and saw more houses standing around in a cluster. Gravel roads cut through them and once it became dark, I realized with complete shock that the houses had lit torches in them. And with the light, I could see what looked like actual people through some of the windows!

"Oh… my… Notch…" I stammered in disbelief. Joey just stared at them, no doubt just as shocked as I. "There's people… actual people…" Words could not express how taken back by this sight I was. It was a village-a real village! For years, I had grown up thinking I would never find other human beings. For years, I thought it would only be Joey and I against the world. And now, everything I had believed for years had come crashing down at this sight alone.

I began to hear the moaning of zombies closing in on us, and we hurried to the village.

I sprinted through the mobs that stood between us and that village. I ducked under arrows, weaved past zombie fists, and slid below lunging spiders, until a zombie managed to land a hit on me, leaving my arm stinging with pain. Then a skeleton hit my chestplate with an arrow and it bounced off, which was very lucky on my part(I still felt the force of impact).

I didn't have to worry about Joey, which was a great thing. As I had learned shortly after we had gone on our own, mobs almost never prioritized attacking my pig over me. Zombies and skeletons were the only ones that I had seen go after him. But I could tell that all the zombies within many dozen blocks would be hungrier for me since I was the bigger target. We closed in on the village. It was still many dozens of blocks away, and between us and the town stood dozens of more mobs. It scared me how many mobs spawned at night.

I made my mistake when I tried to run past a creeper. I thought I could sprint past it fast enough for it to give up on its detonation, but I was wrong. The green monster swelled and exploded with enough force to knock me onto the ground. My back stung with pain.

I spat out dirt particles and quickly got to my feet, but a spider caught up and jumped at me, knocking me back to the ground again on my chest. I felt it bite at me, and my body filled with pain. Then, I heard an angry pig groan and I could see Joey charge at the spider, knocking it off my back. Without hesitation, I pushed myself off the ground and got back to my feet again, shouting a thanks to my brave little companion.

I looked behind us-which was a mistake. Behind us were over a dozen zombies, skeletons, creepers, and spiders all eager to tear me apart. Further behind them, I noticed two skeletons engaged in an archer battle. They may have accidentally shot each other while targeting me. Better them being distracted than contributing. I quickly ran closer to that village, Joey at my side grunting with effort. Normally, I would've at least tried to fight back, but I knew my sword was close to breaking. I knew I had to do my best to preserve it and use it only when I absolutely needed to.

Out of nowhere, I noticed a dark creature appear just in front of me but failed to stop running in time. I slammed against the large creature and knocked it to the ground. Immediately, I realized that I was on top of an enderman. My heart beat out with horror.

I jumped off the enderman as fast as I could, knowing I had messed up. I prayed that the enderman for some reason wouldn't take that as me attacking it, but knew otherwise the moment I saw it begin to tremble. It brought his long black slender arms above it and then slowly lifted itself off the ground, then unhinged its jaw. I proceeded to sprint past it as the creature was getting to its feet, desperate to get away from the newest threat.

I closed in on the village. I could see they had a hulking iron golem patrolling in their village. The golem seemed to notice me and began to sprint towards me.

Suddenly, I heard a zip! and the enderman reappeared in front of me, bent down and looking furiously. Behind me, half a dozen zombies and a few skeletons and spiders drew nearer. Joey stopped and cowered right behind my leg. I looked down at him and gave him a nervous look.

"Joey, you have to head to the village…" I said bleakly. He oinked in protest. "No, Joey, you need to go find help. The enderman's not going to hurt you. Go now!" I ordered, struggling to keep my voice calm. Joey grunted and reluctantly went ahead, passing the enderman. The monster didn't even look at Joey as it began to take a slow step towards me.

I looked back at the enderman nervously and drew my sword, holding the near-broken iron blade out in front of me protectively. The enderman eyed me, and rose to its full height, a full three blocks-one block larger than me. It took another large step forward. I took a slightly-smaller step back. I could hear the rest of the mobs getting closer. I could sense the hatefulness of the beast emanating from it. The air filled with the increasing sound of the enderman's aggression, which hurt to listen to. It filled my heart with fear. My entire body was trembling with anticipation. I could see the iron golem coming closer, but it was still a dozen blocks away.

"L-look… I don't want any trouble…" I stuttered, hoping it could somehow understand me, "I'm no threat to you-" The enderman suddenly let out a roar and surged forwards, slamming its fist against the side of my head and knocking me to the ground.

My head hurt badly. I could no longer think with the pain. My vision began to fade in and out, and I thought I heard the sound of an enderman crying out with pain. I then heard what sounded like loud metal being struck, and then the dying sound of the nearby enderman.

I faintly felt large cold arms gently wrap around me and lift my body up. My head pounded with pain. My vision dimmed, and I could make out the light grey of what might've been an iron golem above me, though I wasn't sure if my mind was in the condition to make that conclusion. I blacked out almost immediately.

 _I dreamed that I was traveling together with Alex and Joey. It had been several years since our family had been torn apart by the evil mobs. We were both nearing our teenage years at the age of twelve. Joey was still a young pig, but we were sure he was older than both of us in pig-years._

 _We were in a snowy fields biome, and it was snowing. It kind of fit the holiday theme of Christmas that was right around the corner._

" _Steven, what are we looking for again?" Alex asked as we treaded across the heavy snow._

" _A village, remember?" I reminded her._

" _But I don't think people ever made their villages in snow biomes…" she complained._

" _Well, still… we have to keep going." I insisted._

" _But who knows if we'll even find anything." Alex grumbled. "One thing's for sure, we can't stay out in this biome when it gets nighttime either."_

" _As soon as the sun starts to set, we'll build a shelter, trust me." I assured. I heard Joey squeal next to me. I could see the poor pig was shivering in the cold. He still had that bruise from when the zombie hit him on his front leg three nights ago._

 _We passed between two snowy hills. One was covered in sheep and cows, but we didn't bother them. We were doing pretty good with food ever since I made bread from the wheat in the ruins of that ghost village a few days ago._

 _All of a sudden, I heard the pained wails of a burning zombie and noticed it come out of a tunnel in one of the hills that I had overlooked. The burning mob stumbled towards me, flailing its arms through the air desperately._

" _Steven, watch out." Alex warned, and I drew my stone sword. The large zombie limped closer and closer. But before I could swing at it, the mob fell to the ground and collapsed, bursting into white smoke. It left behind some rotten flesh, which I did not pick up. We continued onward for a few more hours._

" _Man, this storm's so intense, I can barely even see five blocks in front of us…" Alex grumbled after we had traveled for a while. There was a pretty bad snowstorm around us._

" _Which would you prefer: a brutal lightning storm or heavy snowfall?" I questioned, partially out of curiosity. She took a moment to respond._

" _I'd have to go with the blizzard on that one…" she murmured._

" _Then why're you complaining to me?"_

" _I'm just… venting…" she trailed off. I didn't blame her. The past week had been particularly draining, both emotionally and physically._

 _First, our hut had gotten blown up by a creeper that somehow had appeared inside of it. We had to move because mobs started to come through the blast zone at a fast rate. Then, we had found a hut in the middle of a swamp. We hoped to find some supplies in the hut, but then a witch found us and chased us off. Then, we found what remained of a village in a plains biome. It had been completely destroyed, with most of the houses blown apart by creepers. I had a sneaking suspicion that the village was destroyed on the night we lost our parents-that would explain the creeper explosions. Creepers seemed to no longer try to blow up our houses unless we caused them to since that night long ago. It was odd…_

" _Ya know, even though we're in the apocalypse and stuff, I still can't wait for Christmas this year…" Alex said beside me._

" _Same." I agreed._

 _Christmas was a special tradition for us. From what Mom and Dad used to tell us, it was the original day that people were able to count the year from, since chests always became gift boxes on that day. Although no one knew for sure why, many including myself believed that it was our Creator's doing. I believed that the Creator made Christmas so that people could come together and give gifts in order to create new friendships._

 _Of course, our parents would've said that Christmas was all about family and stuff like that, but I didn't think that was the only reason. I liked to think it was about everyone sharing with each other for the sake of making and keeping friendships. And I couldn't wait to show Alex what I planned to get her for the holiday. I could only imagine what she was going to get me._

" _You gonna drop any hints about what you've got for me?" she questioned with curiosity. I shook my head and gave her a grin._

" _All I'll say is that it's something you used to always ask for." I smiled knowingly._

" _A cake?" she guessed after a moment of thinking._

" _Nope."_

" _A brand new sword?" she guessed once more._

" _No, it's something you used to ask for." I reminded._

" _Hmm…" she mumbled. "Is it a clock?" I intentionally stayed silent. "It is, isn't it?"_

" _Actually, it's not. I was trying to mislead you and it worked." I gave her a mischievous smirk._

" _You jerk!" She gave me a light punch in the arm, and I heard her chuckle lightly. It was good that we were still able to keep each other's spirits up during such rough times._

 _After a few minutes, the blizzard grew worse, reducing visibility even more. I couldn't see anything on the horizon. I could tell Alex and Joey were with me, but could barely see either of them. I felt my body get rushed with a wave of freezing cold air and began to shiver. This storm was getting out of hand real fast._

" _Steven…" Alex called out in a loud voice over the blowing snow. "We need to make a shelter as fast as possible… We're gonna freeze out here!"_

" _I agree…" I raised my own voice over the stormy weather. "You got any blocks with you?"_

" _No… we never took down that house last night, so I got nothing…" she admitted. I heard Joey grunt weakly between us. I knew we needed to find someplace to bunk down during the storm, but I didn't have enough cobblestone blocks to make even a tiny hut._

 _I started to notice the snowy mist surrounding us was taking on a darker blue color. That was not good-that meant nighttime must've been approaching. And the only way it could get worse was if mobs were trying to kill us._

 _Joey squealed joyfully and ran off to my left, away from us._

" _Joey, where are you going!?" I hollered over the howling wind._

" _Wait… I think he found something…" Alex pointed out hopefully and began to follow him. I went with her and sure enough, after taking several steps we were at the base of a big hill._

" _Good job, Joey!" Alex praised, then turned to me. "Steven! I think we should burrow into the hill and make it a shelter!" Alex suggested._

" _I'm way ahead of you…" I assured and brought out my stone shovel and pickaxe, then dug through the first layers of dirt and stone. Within a minute, I had mined enough space into the hill for the three of us to call it a temporary home. Alex and Joey ran in, and she sealed off the entrance with two cobblestone blocks, casting the entire room in darkness._

 _I brought out an unlit torch and struck it roughly across the wall, where it ignited with a hiss. Instantly, the room was bathed in light. I placed the torch on the wall. I could see Alex and Joey were shivering with the cold. And I was no exception myself. I took out several wood-based objects I had on me(such as chests, sticks, and doors) and placed them all in a floating pile. Bringing out my flint and steel, I struck the two together and ignited them to flames. The wooden items lit up with flames and began to let off heat. We sat together and held our hands out close to the burning objects, feeling the comforting warmth of the heat fill our bodies._

 _It wasn't long before the individual objects began to disappear one-by-one. I could feel the heat beginning to get weaker and weaker. The heat was so addicting, I wanted to scoop up the burning items in my own hands. But unfortunately, the only thing I'd be getting were burned hands._

 _Soon, the flames were confined to only a few burning items left. Alex and I scooted closer to them, trying to take in as much of the remaining heat as we could before it vanished. Then, like a delicious meal, it was gone in an instant. Joey trudged over to where the fire had been and plopped his belly over it, trying to soak in the heat from the ground underneath._

 _I could still hear the howling winds from the blizzard outside. To think that we could've been out there, freezing to death, made me nervous. We were lucky Joey found this hill. Of course, freezing was still an issue, but now the blizzard itself wasn't contributing so much. Also, getting snowed-in was somewhat of a risk when we were ready to come out of our shelter, but only if my shovel broke, which I was sure it had enough durability to dig through the snow._

 _I could faintly hear the rattling of skeletons outside, then a chilling moan through the whistling of the wind. There must've been a few skeletons and zombies right outside our shelter. I shuddered, though whether it was from the cold or anxiety, I didn't know._

" _We should get some sleep for the night. Rest out the storm…" Alex suggested. "You don't happen to have any beds, do you?" I looked through my belongings, none of them being a bed._

" _Nope…" I shook my head._

" _Fine, we'll just have to try to sleep on the floor then…" she sighed. An idea came to me and I went through what I had on me._

" _Wait… hold on…" I insisted, then found what I was looking for: eleven pieces of string. "We can at least have something to lay our heads on." I assured as I brought the string together in my hands. Then, I felt most of the string change into what I had wanted and held two wool blocks._

 _I placed one wool block for Alex and one block for myself down, each a block from each other. Then, I pocketed the rest of the string away. Alex sat down and laid by her block and I did the same. Joey came over to lay on his side in the space between us. Smiling, I turned towards him and began to rub his underbelly, eliciting squeals of delight from our pig companion. I noticed Alex seemed to be deep in thought. She looked depressed._

" _I'm tired of struggling." she said suddenly. "Sometimes I wish I could just… end all this chaos…"_

" _Me too. That's why we need to find a village." I pointed out._

" _No, I mean I wish I could just give myself up to the mobs… and end it…" she said darkly. With disbelief, I realized what she meant. I stopped and gave her a shocked look._

" _Alex, that's not what Mom and Dad would've wanted!" I reminded. This was the first time I had ever heard her talk like this._

" _I know, but every single day it's the same thing: trying to stay alive when the odds are stacked against us…" she muttered. "I just don't want to live my life like a hunted animal anymore… I mean, we're always running away, always struggling to survive when the odds are stacked against us…"_

" _But Alex, you shouldn't talk like that. You're my sister. If anything were to happen to you… I don't know what I would do…" I told her._

" _But Steven, don't you see that it's a pointless fight? We're looking for a village when there might not even be any more villages…" she said glumly, "We might be the last people in Minecraftia…" Joey oinked, though I didn't know if he was responding to her or just still in a pleased state._

" _But that's why we need to believe that the Creator hasn't let that happen. Hope will guide us through this, Alex." I assured._

" _You sound like some kind of priest." she noted._

" _Well…" I tried to think of a way to respond to that. I wasn't expecting her to make that kind of comment. "I have no response to that…" I admitted. Alex grinned slightly at my blatant comment. I smiled a little too._

" _Alex, I promise you I won't ever let anything hurt you." I vowed with a determined face. I raised my fist in the air, for added effect. A second passed by before she responded._

" _Well, I think we know what you got from Dad." she smiled. "The willingness to make stupid promises."_

" _Yeah, well… you're my sister. I wouldn't want to lose you. Only because you're the reason why Joey stays with us." She gave me a pouty face._

" _I'm kidding." I laughed. "We both know that Joey stays because of me."_

" _You wish. You were right the first time, he stays because of me for sure." she claimed, then rubbed Joey's back, getting his attention and causing the pig to turn so his underbelly was facing her. "Isn't that right? You care about me a lot more than that Steven, don't you?" she teased, scratching him all over his belly._

" _No, he cares about me much more than you!" I insisted playfully, patting him by the side._

 _Joey tried to turn to face me, but landed on his back instead of his other side, leaving his belly completely exposed to the two of us. At once, we both started scratching him in places he liked. He groaned and I could tell he was feeling very good._

 _After a minute, we both stopped and looked at the pig. He was still, his legs suspended in the air. He looked like he was a million miles away._

" _Joey's so over-dramatic." Alex smiled._

" _Yeah, I think he's had enough of that for a couple days." I smiled as well. We went back to laying with our heads over our wool blocks._

" _Good night, Alex and Joey." I said._

" _Good night, Steven." Alex responded. I sat back and listened to the flame of the torch crackling. Then, I covered my eyes and began to feel tired._

 _I couldn't help but feel a nagging sense of urgency that was sprouting up through my sleepiness. I wanted to tell her how much I miss her, but why did I miss her? We've been living together for years. If anything, it was a bit hard to be around her sometimes._

" _Alex, I want you to promise me something." I spoke through the silence before I could stop myself._

" _Yeah?" she replied._

" _Promise me that no matter what… if we are ever separated, we'll never stop looking for each other until we finally do find each other…" some inside force within me said. I had no idea why I just said that._

" _Um… what?" she questioned, her voice filled with confusion, "That's an odd request."_

" _Just promise me!" I insisted._

" _Okay, I promise… I guess?" she replied. And then, something overtook me. Whether it was sleepiness or something else, I didn't know. But I slipped out of consciousness._

I awoke in a bed with an aching headache. There was what appeared to be a woman sitting in a chair block right next to me. She looked to be around the same age as myself. She had an apple and a water bottle in her hands and held them as if she had been getting ready to feed them to me. She noticed I was awake.

"You're finally awake! That's great!" the woman exclaimed. I groaned and sat up, rubbing the side of my head. I felt a shooting pain spread from the physical contact and realized I didn't remember a lot from last night.

"What… happened?" I moaned, trying hard to recall. I had decided to travel out… for some reason at night… and then I came across a village? The rest was escaping me.

"You were in pretty rough condition when our iron golem saved you a week ago." the lady explained. "You were getting beaten up by an enderman, and you were being chased by almost a dozen monsters. It was a good thing our golem saved you when he did." I recalled getting attacked by an enderman.

"Where am… I… wait-did you say a week ago?" I stammered. The woman nodded. "So I've been asleep for a whole week!?" I gasped. She nodded again.

"I must say, I didn't think you were going to wake up. I thought you were going to stay like that forever." she admitted. "By the way, my name's Jessie. Nice to meet you." She held her hand out in a gesture of greeting, which I accepted.

"I'm Steve. Steve Stonewall. Nice to meet you in return." I responded, shaking her hand. I realized that I didn't have my chestplate on.

"Hey, what happened to my armor?" I asked.

"We took it. You didn't need armor while you were recovering." Jessie explained. I guess that made sense, though I wanted my chestplate back. But I knew it would've been rude to ask right away for it back, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. I wondered where my pig was. I knew he had been with me on that night. "By the way, was there a pig that arrived at the same time I did?"

"Well, yes. I believe so." she answered. "Once we had you safe and sound, a pig came and tried to get to you. I take it the pig's yours?" I nodded.

"I'll just talk with Howard. We'll get you back together." Jessie assured and got up and headed to the door.

"Thanks." I said and she exited the building.

"I did it, Alex…" I muttered to myself, thinking about how proud she would be. "I finally found a village…" I missed her so much. I didn't remember what I had dreamed about last night-or rather, throughout the week, but I knew Alex was a huge part of it.

I couldn't remember much of what went on that night. It was like I had amnesia, but only a minor case of it, since I could still remember my name and all sorts of details from my life. I just couldn't recall why I had wanted to venture out. Sure, it ended well with us coming across this village, but the fact that I couldn't remember my original motive irritated me.

Several minutes later, the door opened up and two people came inside, one of them was Jessie, and the other I didn't recognize. And then I heard a squeal as a pig sprung onto me. It was Joey, and he tried to jump up to my face. I was overcome with joy as the pig squealed happily.

After a moment, I remembered that we weren't alone, and so I turned to Jessie and the newcomer. The man had a rugged-looking face covered in small scars and rough patches, which unnerved me. What unnerved me even more was that he was about my age. His head was covered with dark hair. He wore a white robe. Even with the robe, he looked like he's been in his own share of one-on-ones with mobs.

"Uh, hey there." I cautiously said to the new man. He stared at me. I stared back.

"Who are you? Where did you come from?" he questioned, his voice full of suspicion. I could already tell what type of person this guy was. He was likely the untrusting type that didn't want to trust others to do things for him.

"Um… I came from my house." I answered, not exactly sure how to respond. Would he accept it if I told him that I had found this place by traveling from my new house? Probably, which was why I wished I hadn't hesitated because before I could go into detail, he spoke up.

"Is that an attitude?" he grunted irritably.

"Uh, no! I actually made a house around here. I think I went through…" I tried to remember how far my house was-I tried really hard. But I simply could not recall anything from that day aside from the fact that we had headed out. I couldn't remember how far we traveled. "I can't remember…"

"Uh huh, sure." the man snapped, "I get that too often." Jessie glanced back at him.

"I think he might be telling the truth." she said. "According to the villagers that night, it seems that he did get hit pretty hard on the head from that enderman on that night."

"I don't care." he said as he turned to face her. "Do you remember what the last scumbag we let in to the village did?" the man grunted.

"But that was over two years ago." Jessie reminded.

"We are still suffering from that drawback today. My point is, people don't change. And I know for a fact that selfish griefers like those are still around today." he growled.

"I'm not a griefer!" I blurted out, raising my hands up.

"How do we know that?" he questioned, a brow raised.

"Do I look like the kind that would cause harm to others for fun?" I asked.

"If you want my honest opinion, then no. You don't look like the kind to be a griefer. You look like the kind of person that can't tell a diamond from a block of dirt. You look like the kind of person who keeps sticks in his inventory because he thinks he'll need them instead of wooden planks. You look like the kind of person that-"

"Alright, I get it…" I mumbled with annoyance.

"My point is… looks can be deceiving." he responded as he bit his bottom lip. I wanted to hate this guy, but now that I knew there was a bad incident, I knew his skepticism was justified.

"Look, I promise you I'm no griefer. What kind of griefer would even have a pig companion anyways?" I pointed out. Joey heard him being mentioned and let out an innocent squeal in response. As far as I knew, griefers were lone wolves. Then again, all I knew about griefers were from what I remember my parents would say many years ago. I'd never encountered a griefer before.

"He's got a point… One thing many griefers have in common is that they love killing animals, not keeping them as pets…" Jessie agreed. "I think we should trust him." The man thought to himself for a moment, and then sighed.

"If you really think he can be trusted, then fine." he gave in. "But I got my eye on you." he said and turned to head out. We spoke when he was gone.

"Was that Howard?" I asked. Jessie nodded.

"He's my boyfriend, and he's the chief of the village. But it's not that he hates newcomers, we've just had a really bad experience with our last one…" I remembered hearing about the griefer.

"The last newcomer faked being injured. We took him in, gave him food and a shelter. A week later, he disappeared. At night, a faction swarmed this place, the one he was a part of. They burned our houses, stole our food, and killed a lot of our people." She shivered at the memory and I felt a sense of uneasiness.

"The village was in shambles for the year following. What few people we had struggled to rebuild what we had lost. But thanks to Howard, we pulled through. He filled us with hope. He's a good man, so please don't hate him if he treats you differently from the rest of us." Jessie requested. It sounded like it had been a horrible time back then for them. I decided to listen to her advice and not take it personally.

"Okay, I will." Silence ensued, and I thought to myself how I wished I could say something else to break it. The problem was that I hadn't been around other real people for years! I was glad that I didn't go through with my plan to make an imaginary person from an armor stand.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now. Could you help me up?" I requested. Jessie nodded and presented her hand for me to grasp, which I of course did.

Joey jumped off of my lap as Jessie began to help me out of the bed. I grunted with effort. It really felt like I hadn't been moving my body in a while. I finally got on my feet, but then buckled under the sudden pressure of standing. Thankfully, Jessie stopped me from falling and wrapped my arm over her shoulder.

"So how long have you been on your own?" Jessie asked as she helped me position myself to move.

"Well, in the beginning of all this… chaos, it used to be my sister, Joey, and myself. But five years ago, we got in a really bad situation with mobs and she…" I tried to keep a emotionless face, "she…"

"No need to explain, I understand…" Jessie sympathized.

"Want to take a stroll around the village and tell me your story?" she asked.

"Sure, let's go." Jessie guided me to the door and opened it, helping me go outside. Joey eagerly followed close behind us.

It was nearing evening and the sun was beginning to drift toward the horizon. There were only a few large clouds slowly drifting across the sky. I realized that pretty soon it was going to be nighttime, which sucked because I had just woken up and didn't feel tired at all. And then I looked around us.

There were countless wooden houses everywhere. They were constructed into different house sizes ranging from small huts to large L-shaped homes. I could see a cobblestone well in what I perceived to be the center of town. There was even a large church near it that was constructed almost completely of cobblestone, as well as what I believed was a forge. And as to be expected of a large village, there were people out and about. Some of them socialized, talking about how their days were going and gossiped, while others traded items with one another for and with emeralds. Seeing a village that was bursting with activity like this reminded me of my own village before everything fell apart. I was filled with longing.

Jessie began to guide me along the gravel road, but I started to get the hang of it and had her let go of me. I stiffly walked side-by-side with her. The citizens seemed to pay me little to no attention.

"So, after my sister was gone, it was just me and the pig. We've never come across a village until last ni-or rather, last week." I explained.

"Wait, so you're saying that you went through the past ten years without finding a single village?' she questioned with surprise. I nodded.

"All we would ever come across were the ruins of fallen villages. There were times when my sister wanted to give up. I kept hope alive in her, even I also wanted to quit looking for civilization. I finally gave up looking when she… died… all those years ago." I said.

"You know, it's funny. You look like just an average person, but you've been through a lot more than most of the village folk." she noted. "And you don't even look that different." Several young children ran up to Joey and began petting him everywhere. Joey squealed in protest before one of them found that one spot on his tummy, and he submitted to them with joy. We continued without him.

"What I don't get is how did this place survive all these years?" I asked, noting the surprising lack of protection around this place.

I had always imagined villages would be completely blocked off from the mobs of the night by fences and walls. I imagined that villages would be ruled by a single person, which didn't really seem to be the case here. I imagined that villages wouldn't allow outsiders to live in them, though I had always hoped that had we found one, they'd somehow make an exception for us(I never really had a plan back then). Those were how I thought villages that could have survived through the apocalypse would be. But here, there were children running around, laughing and playing. People were socializing, and appeared to be happy. There were even animals wandering about, doing whatever it is that animals typically do throughout the day.

"We have many iron golems patrolling around the place. Every night, the mobs come. But every night, we have our golems protecting the people. And if one were to be overwhelmed and killed off, then another would spawn in to take its place." Jessie explained.

"But don't you worry about if many of your golems are killed off at the same time?" I mentioned. "What if there's a bunch of endermen?"

"That's why we train people to become knights. We also have a training program to teach everyone how to fight in self-defense. Everyone has an iron sword somewhere in their homes." she explained.

"Wow, you guys really have everything thought out, don't you?" I mumbled with amazement.

"Yeah, Howard really doesn't want a repeat of what happened, so he set all this in motion as soon as the village was capable." Jessie informed.

I noticed Howard in the distance, strolling around the village like he owned it, which I suppose he did. I watched a little girl run up to him. Howard reached into his pocket and pulled out a poppy, giving it to the girl with a smile. I couldn't hear from this distance, but I imagined she laughed in delight at the gift as she ran off. Then, Howard turned to face another person and started conversing.

"Don't worry about that kind of thing happening with me. I'm not a griefer, and I don't belong with any kind of group." I assured.

"I know. You don't appear to be the kind of person who would be a griefer." she agreed. "Or the kind of person that would gang up."

"Is there any way I can convince him?" I asked when I noticed him beginning to eye me skeptically.

"Unfortunately, the only way I think you can get him to see you aren't a threat is with time." Jessie sighed. "You'd need to work for the village and help us out."

"Alright. So, what should I do?" I asked. Jessie looked over to sun.

"Well, tomorrow I can give you an assignment. I'm thinking that you should go fishing." she said. "Today, it's too late for you to be productive." I was a bit disappointed by that. I had wanted to show Howard right away that I was useful.

"So, uh, where am I going to stay?" I pointed out my lack of a place to stay during the night.

"Stay in the house we put you in while you were comatose. Tomorrow, we can begin construction on your house."

My heart beat with excitement. I was actually going to be living here. After many years of solitary life(aside from the fact that I had lived with Joey), I was finally going to live with other humans. I could barely contain my joy.

I noticed the sky changing from orange to much darker. It was starting to transition from evening to night. People stopped socializing and began heading back to their own houses, many of them with children holding on to them. Joey trudged back by my side once again. I couldn't find Howard. He must've left.

"Well, curfew is about to begin. You and your pig should head back to your temporary home." she insisted.

"Okay then… Will I see you tomorrow?" I questioned.

"Unfortunately, no. I have to help my boyfriend decide the village's next main resource to focus on getting." she pointed out. "Have a good night."

"You too." I said as she went off. I patted Joey on the top of his head, and we headed back to the house we had been in.

Once inside, I laid down on my bed and watched the sun go down. Joey jumped up onto the bed with me.

"Joey, I can't believe I had been passed out for an entire week… I'm sorry I kept you waiting…" I said to my friend. He grunted. "Yeah, it's safe to say that this is the latest I'd ever overslept." I smiled playfully. He looked at me with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Well, I'm going to try to get some sleep. You should try too." I suggested, then lay my head down on the nice pillow. I didn't feel very exhausted, but I closed my eyes anyways and cleared my mind. I wanted to get some sleep so that I could make a good first impression on everyone tomorrow.

It took a few moments of keeping my mind blank and smothering my face against the pillow, but I finally dozed off.


	4. Chapter 4: The Fishing Chapter

**Hey guys, it's me again. I just wanna let you know that I probably won't leave a message on every chapter from here on. I'm just not all that talkative. In case there's any confusion, I also want you guys to know that in the world of Minecraftia, there are no villagers. Well, there are, but not any of the big-nosed ones. They're all intended to be the same kind of humans as Steve. And also, in this chapter is when things really begin to pick up.**

 _I was in our new house in the taiga biome with Joey. It was Christmas Eve, the day before the end of the year. It was snowing outside, though that wasn't unusual. It always snowed on Christmas Eve. We were waiting for my sister to return home from fishing._

" _I can't wait for Alex to come back." I excitedly said to Joey. "I wonder what she got for me. I bet it has something to do with magic. You think she'd go so far as to get me an enchanted book?" My pig companion just oinked in response._

 _I made myself busy by smelting some of the ores we had been holding on to for the past several weeks. We still hadn't come across any diamonds, and I didn't see us getting to that point anytime soon, which was disappointing. The two of us rarely went underground. We still hadn't even finished making new sets of iron armor for both of us. Thankfully, getting the iron to make the armor wasn't too incredibly difficult._

 _I was a bit disappointed that we still hadn't gotten diamonds yet. But whenever we tried to get into the deeper layers of the underground world, Alex would get cold feet once lava started to appear(okay, I often gave up before that). Whenever we had gotten to the point of finding lava, I never blamed her at all for giving up. Ever since our horrible experience with lava years ago, she couldn't even look at a lava pool on the surface without shuddering. And I was also nervous about all the mobs. The last thing I wanted was for us to become surrounded, or worse, separated._

 _After a minute, Alex busted through the door, her arms completely filled of items. She stumbled across the room until she bumped against one of our chests and opened it with one hand._

" _I got a lot of stuff from fishing!" she said as half the stuff in her arms fell onto the ground, the other half she managed to stow away._

" _That's great to hear!" I praised. I would've helped her out, but I was putting away the ingots of iron that were finished as they were getting smelted. Luckily, Joey was there on the assist to help her out._

" _I just wish I had cleared out my inventory this morning. I had to carry most of what I fished up because I had a lot of valuables on me." she informed. At this, I chuckled for a second but then focused again._

" _So, what'd you get?" I asked, unsure of whether I meant her present for me or what she got on her fishing trip._

" _A ton of fish and salmon. Also clownfish. And pufferfish, though neither of those two are gonna be of much use to us. I also hooked some leather boots, a lily pad, and… an enchanted fishing rod…" she said awkwardly._

" _Really?" I responded with surprise. She nodded. I didn't think fishing rods could be caught by other fishing rods-much less enchanted ones. That was what I called ironic._

" _Yeah. I started using the fishing rod and began to catch even more fish. So, I think it has the Lure enchantment on it." she informed._

" _That's good." I said. I noticed through our window that it was getting dark._

" _What about you? How much food did you manage to harvest from the farm?" she asked._

" _Um, a lot… I got over a dozen wheat and four potatoes." I lied. In truth, I had spent all day tracking down the gift I was going to give to Alex tomorrow morning. It was tough, but I had managed to hide it before she had come back home._

" _That sounds good." she grinned. "Also, I see you've been smelting some of our ore. Do we have enough to make some armor?"_

" _Yeah, I think we have enough to make a chestplate and some boots. You can have the chestplate." I offered, trying to be polite, but she shook her head._

" _No, no. You use the chestplate. I'll keep the boots. After all, I already got iron leggings." she reminded, pointing to her iron pants._

" _Okay." I accepted. Alex yawned, which caused me to yawn in response. She looked tired._

" _Anyways, it's getting late. We should be getting some sleep." she said mid-yawn._

" _Agreed. We'll make the armor in the morning…" I decided once I finished my own yawn. I headed off to my own room for the night. I assumed that Alex must have eaten on the way back, since she went to her room instead of getting something to eat. I didn't expect for Joey to come with me, since he always slept by the furnaces in the main room._

 _Once in my room, I headed over to my personal chest and put anything I considered to be a waste of inventory away, such as a poppy, some flint, and two eggs-all things that I picked up this morning. Then, I jumped back and landed on my soft bed._

 _It had been a whole two weeks since we had made what we planned to be this long-term house, but my bed still felt as comfy and soft as when I had first used it. I tucked myself in, and within a few moments I was fast asleep._

 _I awoke to the rays of the morning sun shining over me. Groaning, I slowly got out of bed and stretched for a couple moments before leaving the room._

 _I was greeted to the sight of Alex having breakfast while she read a book. Joey was munching on a potato at her feet._

" _Good morning." I said. She looked up and noticed me._

" _Good morning." Was what she said in response._

" _Merry Christmas." I greeted, this time with a smile. It was Christmas day, the first day of this new year._

" _Oh, that's right! I forgot about Christmas…" she muttered. Joey jumped up and trudged over to me, grinning heartily. I bent down and pat him on the top of the head._

" _That's alright, I understand after what happened last year." I assured, somewhat disappointed that I wasn't getting a present this year._

" _Oh, I still got you a gift. I just forgot the day." she clarified._

" _Oh, okay!" I perked up. Then I looked at her book, "So, what book are you reading?"_

" _Um, it's John Blocklen." she responded._

" _No, not the author, I mean what's it called?" I clarified._

" _Oh, A Youthful Adventure." Alex answered, "It's a book about three young kids whose village is attacked by a Wither. They have to go on this amazing adventure across the world and try to find a way to destroy the beast." she explained._

" _That sounds interesting." I lied. I wasn't much of a book reader._

" _Yeah, I found this along with some other books at that village several weeks back." she explained. I recalled the last village we had come across. It had been yet another destroyed one. There had been a library within it, and I remembered Alex grabbing several books from it._

" _You don't have to pretend to be interested. I know books aren't your thing." she then assured. I smiled._

" _Yeah." I agreed and headed over to the chest where we stored our food, which was changed to a gift box for the day, the result of it being Christmas. "So, did you have any dreams?" I teased, bringing out a loaf of bread. She shook her head._

" _Not last night. I suppose it's weird that I had that one dream and now I'm not having any more…" she murmured._

" _What had that dream been about again?" I questioned as I took a bite out of my loaf._

" _I heard some voices conversing, but I couldn't hear what they were talking about exactly. It was weird." she explained._

" _Well, last night I dreamed that a cow was eating my torches. I don't even know why, it just kept bumping into me while I was mining and stealing my torches…" I recounted. Alex chuckled, which made me smile despite my mouth being full of bread._

" _So anyways, when are we going to open each other's' presents?" she asked._

" _I'm thinking later in the evening. We should probably work on our daily activities until the sun's on the horizon." I suggested as I finished off the bread loaf, "That way, we'll get today's tasks done and over with._

" _Alright."_

" _Wake up." I heard a voice say._

" _What?" I asked._

" _What?" Alex asked back._

" _Nothing…" I muttered._

" _Wake up!" the voice said again and I began to feel a sense of wooziness overcome my mind._

" _WAKE UP!" was the last thing I heard before I blacked out._

"Wake up." a gruff voice ordered. I groaned with exhaustion and, filled with nothing more than the desire to get comfier, shifted to be more comfortable. That was when my bed was broken and I fell onto the floor with a thud. I heard Joey squeal in shock.

"Owww…" I moaned and sat up. Right beside me, a rather large man was staring down at me. He looked very intimidating, and his body had scars all over.

"Get up." he ordered curtly. Despite his large appearance, I frowned.

"Why'd you do that?" I questioned.

"Because you wouldn't wake up. Now get up and come with me." he ordered again, his gruff voice growing annoyed. Joey ran behind me, and I could see that the poor pig was terrified of the husky dude. Not wanting to tick this guy off, I stiffly got to my feet. The large man headed outside and I followed him out into the morning sun, my pig silently trailing behind my feet.

"So… did someone send you to wake me up or something?" I asked while we walked. I noticed many villagers were gone from their houses, but there were some tending to what I recognized to be large fields of crops.

"Yes. You didn't wake up when the morning alarm was up, so Howard sent me to wake you up." he answered.

"I didn't even know there was a morning alarm…" I mumbled.

"There is. Because you are a newbie, I'll explain it to you. The morning alarm is activated by the daylight sensors. Every morning, the alarm goes off, and all the village people must continue on their scheduled activities. It has been this way for many years now." he explained. I didn't know how to feel about that.

I had long since understood that if there were to be any villages that had survived all these years that they'd probably have pretty different customs to what I was used to, but waking up at the same time every day to do work just seemed… restraining to me.

"Oh." was all I said in response. We stopped at the start of a long road made of spaded dirt. The road headed away from the village through a forest.

"You're assigned to go fishing for today. Go down that road and you will end up by the dock where you will meet other fishermen. Just grab a fishing rod and go at it. Head back when it is evening." he ordered.

"Okay…" I murmured and proceeded to head down the road.

Joey and I headed along a small forest, following the light-brown road. I was concerned about mobs that might've still been out. But I couldn't hear any, so the only mobs I had to worry about would be creepers.

I could tell that Joey was terrified of that guy from before. The poor pig had finally stopped shaking.

"Don't worry, buddy. I won't let anything happen to you here." I assured him. "No one's going to be turning you into porkchops on my watch." He oinked in response, though I wished I knew exactly what he was saying.

As I stepped through a patch of tall grass, I heard a hiss and saw a black mass lunge at me just before I was taken down to the ground. Instantly, my body was filled with adrenaline as I came face-to-face with the culprit-an angry spider.

I struggled to push the behemoth off, but it was so heavy, and the spider had a grip around my body. Joey tackled it, but the spider stayed stuck onto me. I felt it bite down onto my shoulder and pain erupted throughout my body. Then for some reason, it jumped off of me and began to walk away.

I immediately got to my feet and drew my sword. Then, I swung the blade at the spider and it flashed red as I hit it. The spider then pounced at me, but I slammed it away with my weapon. It lunged again and I hit it one last time with my sword, killing the mob. The spider fell over and turned into white smoke, leaving behind a string and a spider eye. Why had the spider let me go? I pondered. Then I looked up and noticed that I was under a wide open area devoid of leaves-despite there being trees all around me. The spider went passive shortly after grappling me, I mentally noted. It must've been because the spider was in sunlight, so it got exhausted and gave up even though it was hurting me.

Picking up the string, we continued on the road until we made it out of the forest and into a wide clearing.

I noticed a long river in the opening. There was a large wooden dock around the perimeter, and people fished across them. I noticed many of them were young kids. The river seemed to cut through the open area back into the forest.

I noticed several chests on the wooden area ahead of us and headed towards the containers, assuming that the fishing rods would be in there. Opening up one of them, I went through the chest. Within it, there was nothing but stacks of fish. I closed that chest and went through another. This one contained stacks of salmon. I went through a third chest and this one had stacks of pufferfish. Then, I looked at a fourth one that had a sign in front of it. The sign said, 'Fishing rods are in here.' "Go figure…" I sighed and went through the chest. Sure enough, there were still a dozen fishing rods left.

I took one out and closed the chest, then went towards a spot by the river. I cast the line out onto the river and watched the hook bob on the water's surface.

It took a few moments, but the hook finally sunk down below the surface and I yanked upward. A fish shot out of the water and landed by my feet. Joey was quick to pick it up in his mouth and hand it to me.

"Thanks, Joey." I gave him a smile. He oinked happily and I cast the line back out to the river.

"So, you must be that newcomer that everyone's been talking about." someone said from my side. I looked to the side and noticed an elderly man walking up to my side. He wore a farmer's hat and had a blade of grass in his mouth. The man held his fishing rod over his shoulder. He looked like he should've been a farmer, so I didn't know why he was a fisherman.

"People have been talking about me?" I repeated. He nodded.

"Truth is, you gots the whole town worrying about what's gonna happen next." he revealed. "No one knows what to make of you, kid. One day outta nowhere, an outsider just suddenly appears, and now everyone's scared." I didn't know what to make of this information.

"Why are they scared?" I asked, though I already was forming a suspicion.

"Oh, Howard didn't tell ya? Well, a few years ago, we let in some injured outsider, and he-"

"Howard told me about that." I interrupted. I then realized I had been rude, "Sorry about that."

"Ah, don't worry about it. Anyways, people are afraid of you, kid." he stated. "They're worried that you're a part of the same faction of griefers that attacked the village years ago."

"Well… I'm not." I insisted. I was suddenly aware of many of the people across the river bay eyeing me, which made me even more nervous.

"I believe ya. I trust that young Howard's judgement. Though he is young, he's… he's very wise. Howard gots that from his father, and his father gots it from his own father, ya know. And if there was some affiliation you had with those griefers, I know he'da found it out by now."

Suddenly, I felt my fishing rod getting pulled forward, and I immediately yanked it up. My hook flew back and landed on my face. I grunted upon feeling a sudden pain of the hook making contact with my nose and gently grabbed the hook, then slowly lifted it off of my nose. Then, I dropped the hook and cast the line out again.

"You alright there, kid?" he asked, a smile on his face. I nodded. "Where's my manners? My name is Charles Woodblock." he introduced.

"I'm Steve Stonewall." I introduced as well, then pointed to my pig, "And this is Joey, my pig buddy." Joey oinked happily.

"In all my years, I'd never seen or heard about someone living with a pig as a companion." Charles muttered, "You sure is an interesting young fellow."

"Yeah well, when you spend enough time with pigs, you discover they have a lot more personality than wolves and ocelots." I said, smiling at my animal buddy.

"You need some help there, sonny?" he suggested, pointing at my line. I looked and noticed a watery trail closing in on my hook before it was submerged underwater. With a surprise yelp, I yanked my pole up as fast as I could and my hook was launched out of the water, a bottle of water flying out with it. I snatched the bottle midair and tucked it away.

"Good job. You're good at fishing." Charles praised, though I thought about that awkward moment when I hooked my nose just a moment ago. "Usually I have to teach people how to fish and catch the item when they hook it."

"Well, I have had a lot of experience with fishing. Fish and salmon were always a safe back-up food supply for me." I explained.

"Smart. A lot of the village children are spoiled these days. They don't understand what a dangerous world it is out there. I suppose I don't blame the lil tykes though… They haven't been through the Mob Revolution like the adults have… And their parents are always trying to shelter them…" he sighed.

"Wait, the Mob… Revolution?" I asked. Charles nodded.

"That's what us village folk refer to the night that mobs appeared in larger numbers and attacked villages like ours." he explained, "You must've lived through it."

"Okay." I supposed it would make sense for it to have had an actual name. Charles looked up at the sun, which was already nearing the edge of the sky.

"Well, it looks to be time to head back to the village. Come with me." he insisted. Charles then shouted loudly, "Alright, everyone head back to the village!"

All at once, every one of the people around us reeled up their hooks and began to head to many chests. I watched as they began to form a line by the chests. Every person placed a fishing item in a chest as they went along. Joey and I followed him over to the chest too.

He went over to the chest that contained fish and put, well… fish in it. I did the same as he went on to place salmon in the salmon chest. I followed his lead, and when he put a pufferfish in the next chest, I remembered I hadn't caught any pufferfish.

"Um, I didn't catch any pufferfish. Do I just move on?" I asked.

"Yes sonny, just move on." he said and put his fishing rod in its respective chest. Once I got there, I put my own away. He put up a clownfish in the final chest.

"Whatever you catch that ain't fish, you can keep." Charles explained. "If you catch treasure or junk items, you can trade it around with other villagers for goods. Stuff like blaze rods and lily pads go for a lot around here. Anything that is enchanted is worth even more."

"Oh, okay. I suppose that makes sense." I muttered. We headed into the forest.

By the time we had made it out of the forest, it was already nighttime. Almost everyone was in their homes. It took us so long because Charles wasn't exactly the fast walker. Jessie came up to me.

"Hello, Steve. I see you've been acquainted with Charles." she noted.

"Oh yes. This fellow was even kind enough to walk with me on the long way back." Charles said with a smile. It was true, though mainly because I just couldn't think of any way to move ahead of him without feeling like a jerk. He was very slow.

"That was very thoughtful!" she exclaimed. "Now, I need to take Steve and his pig friend from you for the night."

"Go ahead." Charles assured.

"Okay, Steve, come with me. I would like to show you to your new house." she requested.

"Alright." I said casually, trying to keep it cool, though I was secretly excited. She turned and walked towards a house in the distance, one that I hadn't noticed yesterday or this morning. I began to size it up before we even made it to the house. I lowered to Joey while we went along.

"I can't wait to finally feel like part of a society again…" I whispered to the pig. He grunted happily in response.

As we went over to the house, Jessie turned and walked right from it. I was surprised by this-this was the house… wasn't it? She looked back at me, seeing that I was just standing.

"Follow me." she repeated. I came to the conclusion that perhaps I hadn't noticed the house there because I hadn't looked around the village much. I proceeded to follow her until we stopped by another house at the end of the road.

"We're here." she said. I looked up at the building. It was the average size of any other houses in this village. The house itself was made mostly of oak wood planks, oak logs, and cobblestone, with a few windows here and there. But for some reason it didn't have a door built. It only had an open doorway. I could see light inside, so I knew that it was already lit with torches.

"Thanks!" I told her. Jessie looked back at me.

"For what? I wasn't the one who built it." she pointed out.

"Good point." I noted. "Thanks for showing me then… I guess."

"You're welcome then." she said.

"Where's the door?" I asked, noting the apparent gaping entrance.

"Well, you need to make one. In a lot of villages, it's customary for the owner of a house to make and set down their own door." she explained. "It's kind of a symbolic thing. Of how the person officially owns that house."

"Oh, okay then."

"Also, just so you know, you're going to be working underground in the mines tomorrow. But before you do, I'm going to show you where the board of assignments is in the village." she stated.

"A board of assignments?" I asked.

"Yeah, the board changes every day. It tells each and every person what task they must complete for the day. The people that make changes to the board are always on top of what supplies this village has and what supplies we need. If we are running low on food, then more people are assigned to farm, butcher animals, and fish. If we are running low on ores, then more go mining. You get the point." She explained. "Now, rest up, because tomorrow may be very exhausting for you." she stated and went off.

"Okay…" I replied. I knew tomorrow wasn't going to be very fun. But I wasn't going to let that ruin this night. "Come on, Joey! Let's check out the new place!" I said and ran inside. Joey joined me. Inside the house, there was already a crafting table, a furnace, a chest, and a bed placed down.

I went over to the crafting table first and placed down six blocks of wood planks. The oak wood shot together and transformed into three oak doors. Picking up the items, I placed one down at the empty doorway and filled it with the door. Then, I went to the chest and put everything that I wasn't going to need for mining tomorrow away.

Tired and exhausted, I went over by my bed and fell down onto it. It was good that I had been assigned a task that required relatively little effort today, since I was still feeling weak from being unconscious for a week yesterday. I covered myself with my blanket and buried my face in the pillow.

I felt Joey jump up onto my covers, but I didn't mind. I soon drifted off to sleep.

 _I was surrounded by darkness. I could see nothing around me. A burning fire spread out in front of me. In the burning flames, I could see the dark silhouettes of what appeared to be four skeletons on horses. Their eyes glowed with fiery redstone-red lights. Four horsemen…_

" _Petty one who threatens our eternal king with your very existence, you are barely of any significance to us." the horsemen spoke in unison. "You are nothing more than a weak human. We live to serve our maker, and the day that you stand up to one of us will be the day you die."_

 _I noticed something else appear between the four skeletons. A glowing set of pure white eyes, eyes with no pupils. They had no pupils, but somehow I knew they were staring straight at me. Instantly, my whole body was filled with fear. I began to tremble uncontrollably as an evil laughter filled the dreamscape._

" _The Creator is truly desperate if he hopes mere humans can defeat me!" a barely audible voice chuckled. "I am the king of mobs, and I cannot be killed by the puny average diamond blade. Pitiful human, if you think you stand a chance, then you have a death wish. If you think you can protect your pathetic town from my rage, then just try to stop me. I would love to kill another human… In fact, perhaps I'll send you a visitor…" Just then, one of the horsemen to the left faded into the flames, leaving three others with the eyes._

" _The day that you are unlucky enough to face me is the day you will perish. Weak little human, know my name and fear it. I am Herobrine, king of the mobs, and I will exterminate all humans." Suddenly, I was hit with a force that felt like I was trapped in the being's grip. I couldn't breathe at all. I gasped for air, but none would enter my lungs. My vision of my fiery surroundings dimmed until I couldn't see it any longer._


	5. Chapter 5: The strange portal

I woke up gasping for breath. Relief came when I was finally able to breathe. Joey squealed with surprise at my sudden outburst. I took a few breaths in before talking to him.

"Sorry, Joey. I had a really bad dream…" I stated. My body was starting to come out of panic-mode. I tried to remember what I had dreamed about.

Normally, I wasn't very good at remembering dreams, but I could remember last night's dream perfectly. And that scared me. The name Herobrine sounded very familiar, but I couldn't remember who Herobrine was.

Just then, a large man that I recognized to be the same one from yesterday morning entered my house. He noticed me awake.

"Well, that's convenient." he said. "You need to come with me. Howard has arranged a town meeting."

"What for?" I asked as I started to get out of my bed. Joey jumped off and snuck next to me.

"A Nether portal was discovered in one of the underground caves this morning. And it had appeared out of nowhere." he revealed. My heart skipped a beat. After last night's dream, I was very unnerved by hearing this. I thought the Nether was a place only spoken of in legend. It was a supposedly a made-up world of fire and monsters that had been shrouded in mystery.

"You need to come to the town center. Come with me." he ordered and went outside. Not wanting to argue, I followed close behind him. Joey hid from him as we went along.

"The name's Bruce, by the way." he grunted.

"My name's Steve." I introduced myself, "And my pig's Joey, though he seems to be a bit nervous."

"I couldn't care less about you or your pig." he grunted. Rude… I thought. We walked awkwardly in silence for a moment before I tried for a new conversation.

"So, what about this portal? Do you know anything?" I asked as I noticed a gathering at the center of town. Bruce shook his head.

"I have no idea. Howard had the whole mine sealed off immediately."

Soon, we were a part of the crowd. Everyone was muttering amongst themselves, and I could hear tones of concern and worry in their voices. Then, Howard appeared on a podium in front of the town well.

"Settle down, everyone." he ordered, but the commotion wouldn't stop. He then shouted, "I said SETTLE DOWN!" At this, the rabble died down.

"Now, I know everyone is nervous. But right now, there is no need to be concerned. It is in fact a Nether portal that leads into the Nether. I don't know why or how it appeared, but we are working on finding out more."

"Hey!" someone from the crowd shouted, "Isn't it shady how this happened only a couple days after that outsider woke up?" This caused more muttering amongst people. I noticed some of them looked at me with cautious gazes. I began to panic; I didn't like being wrongly accused of something as serious as this.

"Quiet! There is currently nothing linking him to the portal!" Howard insisted.

"But what if the griefers are readying to attack!?" another hollered.

"The portal has nothing to do with the griefers. As for Steve, if he were to have anything to do with the griefers, I will find it out. But for now, our biggest concern is how the portal came to be. No one from our village has built it, and so the only explanation is that the portal had to have been built from within the Nether dimension." Howard explained. Some of the villagers gasped at hearing this deduction.

"Now, the only way we can find out who made it is if we send a small group of people that are willing to go into the Nether to explore the nearby areas and find out what they can. I myself am going to be a part of the group. If you would like to contribute, then raise your hand." One hand rose, and then another. But no more hands were raised.

"Very well then, Andie, and Travis. Together, we will investigate the Nether. And Steve will be coming with us." he stated. Joey squealed with shock as surprise took me.

"Wait, why me?" I shouted. He looked down at me.

"Because that way I will know whether you're truly an outsider with no affiliation with griefers, or if it's the opposite." he said, giving me a skeptical look.

"But-" he cut me off.

"And that concludes our meeting." And with that, everyone began to head off. Many were still murmuring, but I could tell that Howard had made some of them feel safer. Soon, there was only me, him, and the two other people. He looked back at me.

"Now, let's head out." he said.

"Wait… now?" I stammered.

"Of course! This is a level four situation!" he pointed out.

"Level four?" I asked.

"There are four levels that I use to determine how dangerous a scenario is. Level four is obviously the worst." he said.

"Oh…" was what I replied with.

"Alright, let's head out then." one of the other people said.

"You're right, Andie. Let us head underground." Howard put on a determined look.

"But what if we come across, you know… trouble?" the other guy-which I guessed must've been Travis-muttered. "We're going to need to bring some supplies and weapons before we go."

"Hmmm…" he hummed, thinking to himself, "The longer we wait, the more potential danger the village is in…"

"It's not going to take that long at all." Travis insisted.

"Very well then. Hurry up and meet me by the mines before evening." He looked at me. "For you, Steve, it's right outside the village perimeter, right off the path you went to go fishing yesterday." He pointed to the direction I went yesterday. I nodded in understanding.

"Okay, go now." he ordered and Travis and Andie headed away, presumably to their own houses. I did the same and headed in the direction of my own house, my pig trotting by my side.

Once inside my house, I rushed through my belongings in my chest, put away stuff I wouldn't need and took out some string and sticks. I went over to my crafting table and crafted myself a bow. I knew I had a few arrows, which was good. And I knew that my sword was still on the verge of breaking, which wasn't so good-especially since I didn't have any more iron to replace it.

Going through the chest some more, I pulled out several steaks and cooked chickens and put them away in my inventory. I had a feeling I was going to need a lot of food where I was going. Joey jumped over the chest and dug his head through its contents, pulling out a few of my carrots. I smiled and took them.

"Yes, we'll definitely need these, Joey." I assured him. He smiled back, patting his feet over the chest excitedly.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any iron to make armor, which meant all that I had was my iron chestplate-until I remembered that it had been taken from me while I had been asleep in that coma. Which basically meant that I had to go into this mythical realm not really sure about what to expect, and without any armor.

I sighed and we went back outside, going in the direction Howard had told us to go to before finding a tunnel leading deeper into the world. I didn't even know how we had missed it yesterday. We both went down the tunnel.

It was very dark. The torches were spread out very far apart. I was surprised that there were no mobs waiting for us by the time we reached the bottom. The tunnel dug into a rather large cave system at the bottom. There were several more tunnels that led out of the large space we were in. Fortunately, this place was a lot more lit than the surface tunnel. I noticed that the place looked to have been mined away in a lot of places. There were no ores in sight.

I spotted Howard in front of one cave opening. He looked back at me and gestured for me to follow him, which I did. Joey trotted alongside me as always. Our footsteps echoed throughout the dimly-lit underground mining grounds. I felt a sense of uneasiness. That dream I had had scared me. I felt like I could still see those pure white eyes staring at me from within the darkness, but I couldn't actually see any. And I was terrified of those horsemen as well, they had looked and sounded very threatening.

"Steve, do you know what the Nether is?" he questioned me once we had caught up.

"I'd heard a little bit about it when I was young." I responded. "But I had always thought it was just a myth, a place where parents would say bad kids were sent to in order to get them to obey."

"No, Steve. The Nether is an actual place. And it's a haven for very dangerous mobs. I've never been there myself, but my dad had. He told me how it is a hellish world where netherrack replaces dirt and stone, fire replaces grass and lava replaces water. There are apparently zombie pig creatures everywhere, and white demons that fly through the sky, blasting anyone who dares enter the hellish world to particles." he explained. I shuddered at the thought.

"Look, I never built this portal." I promised him.

"Don't you think I know that? I know you didn't build the Nether portal. It's very obvious. But, you've put me in a tense situation with the unfortunate timing of your arrival. The villagers are all so caught up in jumping to conclusions that I'm in a tight situation. I'm going to have to prove that you aren't tied to that scumbag griefer faction step-by-step. This is only the first test-" I started to see purple light from around the corner.

We turned the corner, and I spotted a floating wall of swirling purple light. Purple particles floated around the light, and it emitted ominous noises. I noticed that the purple surface was surrounded by a black frame that looked to be made out of obsidian. The top of the frame touched the ceiling of the small tunnel. Immediately, I realized that it must've been the Nether portal!

"Wow…" I muttered. Joey oinked with what I recognized to be his tone of awe.

"That… is the Nether portal." Howard informed. "And beyond that lies the Nether-an entirely different world from ours. We just need to wait for Andie and Travis to get here-"

The portal suddenly began to emit strange noises different from the ambience. It sounded more distorted now. Howard instantly drew his sword. When I saw this, I did the same and stared at the portal's surface nervously.

All of a sudden, the frame of the portal filled with black figures that resembled skeletons, but much taller, causing Joey to squeal out in shock. We jumped back in surprise as the skeleton-like mobs began to exit the portal.

The three of us ran back several blocks away from the mobs. Howard stared them down while I felt my body beginning to quake with fear. There were a total of six of the weird skeletons. All at once, the skeletons pulled out stone swords that were covered in grey mist. I didn't like our chances.

The portal flashed purple bright enough to light up the entire tunnel, momentarily blinding my eyes. When I could see again, there was a new skeleton in the portal. This dark skeleton was just as tall as the others, but somehow it radiated an air of leadership. It exited the portal and looked over at us, drawing a diamond sword instead of stone. I gasped in horror when I realized it looked like one of those skeleton-like horsemen from my dream last night! The skeleton leader locked eyes with me and immediately rattled.

"Wither skeletons… Seize the humans!" it shouted in a raspy but deep voice. I was caught off guard by this sudden speech. The Wither skeletons charged at us.

"What the hell?" Howard stammered, "They can talk!?" One Wither skeleton ran at him and swung its stone weapon at him. Howard dodged and stabbed his iron sword at it, turning it red as the blade struck the skeleton's ribs.

Suddenly, I saw a stone sword coming down onto me and immediately jumped out of the way. Raising my sword, I swung at the attacker and heard the skeleton clatter in pain. It then swung at me again and I ducked, barely avoiding the stone blade.

"ANDIE, TRAVIS, GET OVER HERE!" I heard Howard shout at the top of his lungs. It might've been my imagination, but I thought I heard distant shouting in response from far back.

I slammed my near-broken weapon against the skeleton, and it collapsed to the ground with a last clatter before becoming vapor. Another Wither skeleton ran at me and attempted to stab me in the chest. I dodged to the right, but could feel the wind ripple right next to me as the blade missed. I hollered and slashed my sword at the skeleton's ribs. The mob flashed red, but retaliated with a slash back at me. I tried to avoid the hit, but felt the blade bite into my waist, knocking me to the ground.

My body was filled with pain. I couldn't even think. The hit hurt so much more than I would have thought. I cried out in agony, but still got back up to my feet and thrust my sword at the skeleton. It turned red again as the tip touched it and the skeleton tried to land another hit on me. I ducked under the hit and swung my sword at the Wither skeleton one more time. The moment the blade made contact, my weapon split in half, the top half of the weapon flying off and landing a few blocks away. The skeleton collapsed and turned into smoke, as did both halves of my sword. I was now left without a weapon. _No!_ I thought as a third mob approached me. I could hear the far-off shouting of Andie and Travis getting louder and closer.

A sudden great pain surged through my body from my waist, completely unprovoked. It took me by surprise, and I nearly sank to one knee. Weary, I began to back away when my back bumped against something that wasn't a wall. I turned around and saw two large dark bony legs. Fear took over, and I slowly brought my gaze up over three sets of big ribs and finally, onto the glowering gaze of the horseman. He stared straight down at me. My body was charged with so much adrenaline that I couldn't stop trembling. Then, he raised his skeletal arm and struck me with great force on the head. I became disoriented. My vision became blurry, and then began to spin. I tried hard to stay on my feet, but quickly collapsed.

I felt what I perceived to be something grabbing on to my arms, then felt what I perceived to be my body being dragged. I could no longer trust my senses to be accurate. Then, I felt something tug on my leg. Through my distorted vision, I noticed a patch of pink gripping my foot, holding onto me with a fierce will to keep me safe. The feeling of being dragged lessened ever-so-slightly.

"Come on! Surely you subjects are stronger than a simple boar!" I heard the skeletal leader rattle.

"Joey…" I might have muttered, though I wasn't completely sure. I heard a shout of pain from somewhere in the tunnel-it sounded like it might've come from Howard.

"You are kidding me…" the skeleton hissed, "Fine, if you cannot overpower a pig, then the pig comes with us." I noticed a black mass blur come into vision. The pink blur that was Joey was lifted into the air. "Let Joey go…!" I growled, trying to snap out of it. My vision began to steadily clear up. The skeleton launched Joey over me. The pig called out in fear as he disappeared through the portal. Protective rage swelled up within me. I struggled against the skeleton that held my hands, but couldn't break free. Somehow, this skeleton had been too weak to overpower Joey, but was still able to keep a firm grip on me. The skeletal horseman got in my face as I thrashed.

"What a shame… This is the so-called spawn of the Creator that Herobrine sent me to capture? I pictured you to be at least an admirable warrior of some sort…" he mocked, and then struck me one more time on the side of my head. I lost consciousness.


	6. Chapter 6: Into the Nether

By the time I came to, I could tell that I was in an entirely different place before even opening my eyes. The first thing that I noticed was the heat.

It was scorching hot. I realized that my body was already drenched in sweat. It felt like I was inside a furnace. Then, I opened my eyes and noticed the red. Wherever I was, it was made out of unusual-looking red blocks. There were patches of fire that burned over in random places on the ground.

I tried to move my hands, but I couldn't. I tried again, but no use. I realized that my hands were tied together by leads. I knew that I was on a horse; I could tell by the clip-clop of its hooves on the ground. Fear began to build up within me.

I looked around. There were two Wither skeletons on both sides of the horse, staring straight ahead and not even noticing me. The landscape was all over the place. I could see floating islands, upward and downward spires, thin sheets of land leading away from large landmasses. I even realized with a shock that way up above, I could see dark red ceilings that covered this place. Glowing sprouts of materials that slightly resembled gold erupted from the ceiling. I wondered if the material had a name(I would've called it something along the lines of Glowing Gold). I had a daunting suspicion that we were in the Nether…

I looked down, and what I saw horrified me. I was on a horse, yes, but it wasn't an ordinary horse. It looked like a Wither skeletal version of one. It was made completely from horse bones, but the bones were all charred black. The skeletal horse let out a low-pitched and hallow whinny.

I didn't want to be here. This wasn't happening to me. I began to thrash around, trying to break free from my bounds. "Hey! Let me go!" I shouted, but the Wither skeletons rushed to me and held me down on the horse.

"Quiet, human!" one of them hissed in a hallow, ghostly voice. I stop struggling for a moment, then continued to resist.

"How come you mobs are able to talk!?" I hollered while thrashing.

"He told you to be quiet!" the other skeleton shouted, then hit the side of my head. It wasn't nearly as hard as the horseman's attack, but my head still rang. I saw the horseman skeleton appear from behind me. He looked down at me with disdain.

"Little human, we are treading over this landmass's edge over the Great Lava Sea. I wouldn't try to break free if I were you, as I hear humans can't withstand lava as we can. And if you fall, I have no need to try to rescue you, as you would be doing my job for me." the skeletal leader chastised.

"Who are you!?" I stammered, "Where are you taking me?"

"My name is Witanos… and I am taking you to my king, Herobrine. He has requested for me to capture you so that he can decide what to do with you." Somehow, it didn't sound like he was saying, 'so that he can decide what to do with you.' It sounded more like he was straight-up saying, 'so that he can kill you.'

"Just let me go! I'm just trying to survive!" I hollered. He kept staring at me with his empty eye sockets.

"I have no intention of doing that. You see, you will soon become a threat to my king's plans. King Herobrine knows that. And Herobrine has ordered for you to be brought before him. Alive, preferably, but not mandatory." he explained. I thought about the being from my dream. He had warned against ever going against him, yet I hadn't even been given a chance!

"But I'm not a threat!" I shouted.

"Yet." Witanos argued, "But you would be, if I were to even consider letting you go. You are not going to escape your destiny this time!" I noticed that he said 'this time,' as if this wasn't the first time Wither skeletons had tried to capture me, which I knew it had been.

"Now, be quiet. We need only to make it to the nearest Nether fortress, and it will then be much easier from there." he sneered, then moved ahead. I watched the two other skeletons hurriedly walk alongside him.

I heard an oink below me. Looking out to the ground by the undead horse, I was greeted with the familiar sight of my pig friend.

"Joey!" I quietly exclaimed. He looked up at me and grunted passively, though I could see in his eyes that he was scared. Unlike me, he seemed to be untouched. "Thank Notch you're okay… Now listen here…" I leaned as close to him as I could manage without falling off the horse. He perked his ear up to listen.

"Look, we're in a tight situation here… but I think I have an idea…" I whispered to him, eyeing the Netherish skeletons further ahead. The last thing I wanted was for one of them to turn around and see me speaking with my pig. "If we're going to get away unharmed, I'm going to need your help, okay buddy?" At this, the pig nodded.

"Look, I can't move my arms because they're tied up by leads, which means I can't pull anything out of my inventory. I need you to find something that might be able to cut the ropes. While the skeletons are moving us somewhere, just try to find something. Alright, buddy?" I requested, trying to keep my voice calm. Joey nodded and ran off, looking around the area while keeping pace with us.

A minute later, he came back with something dark in his mouth. It looked like… flint? Of course, flint had to be sharp enough! But how did Joey get it? I looked where he had come from. Sure enough, there was a gravel bed along the edge of the cliff. So, gravel existed in the Nether too…

Joey lifted the flint up as high towards me as he could manage. I leaned down over the side of the skeletal horse as low as I could, trying to reach the flint with my mouth. Finally, I grabbed the mineral and lifted myself back onto the horse. Now was not the time to worry about pig saliva.

"Good job, Joey…" I quietly praised as I cautiously eyed the skeletons. Fortunately, they appeared to be focused ahead.

I grabbed the flint piece with the tips of my hands. Then, hoping the flint would be sharp enough, I got to work, cutting away at the leads as fast as I could. One binding split, and I continued on another. The second one soon burst.

Suddenly, I lost my grip on the flint. It flew forward and hit the dark skeletal horse on the back of the head, then landed on the now-gravel ground with a clink. The horse grunted with surprise and stopped moving. Quickly, the three skeletons turned around and hurried back over to us. My heart began to beat rapidly.

"What was that?" the horseman interrogated me. I nervously looked up at him and lifted my shoulders.

"I don't know… I saw a drop of lava land on the horse… I think that scared it…" I anxiously suggested.

"You think I am an idiot, human? Lava does not bother Esther in the slightest. I heard something clatter onto the ground." the horseman responded in a dangerous tone. I tried to keep my cool the best I could.

"I didn't hear anything…" I casually shrugged. The skeleton stared at me, then ducked down to look at the ground under the skeleton horse. I prayed for a miracle.

After a second, he lifted his head back up and turned to his two comrades.

"Did you hear it?" the skeletal leader questioned. One of them shook their heads.

"No, I was just following you, my lord." the Wither skeleton responded.

"Hmm… Very well then, we shall continue-" he then emitted a series of different bone rattles as they headed onwards again, causing the horse to walk again and follow the skeletons once more.

Once they were just out of hearing range, I sighed with relief. They seemed to not care about the pig right by me. I leaned over to look at Joey. He looked back up at me, and I could see the flint in his mouth.

"Joey, did you…? You clever pig…" I praised him for hiding the flint. He grinned, then jumped onto a raised block of netherrack as the horse walked by it. Quickly, I leaned over and snatched the flint with my mouth again. I had to admit, this certainly was a trust exercise.

Moving the flint from my mouth back to my hands, I watched the skeletons cautiously. For a scary second, it looked as if the horseman was about to turn around, but I realized he was just talking with one of his grunts.

Once the flint was back in my hands, I continued to work towards cutting the third loop of rope. It took a tad bit longer, but the lead ripped, leaving only one more binding on my hands remaining. I went to work on the final lead. Within moments, I broke through the lead that had bound my hands together. I was finally free of my bindings.

Now that my hands were loose, I watched the skeletons talking amongst one another. I listened to the words they were speaking, trying to judge when the greatest possible opportunity to attempt my escape would be. They seemed to be talking about their plan for once we reached the Nether fortress.

Finally, I found what I believed to be the best time while they were mid-discussion and facing ahead. I jumped off the horse and began to sprint back as fast as I could. Joey turned and joined me, keeping pace with me. I heard the horse howl out loud upon feeling my weight disappear.

I heard a shout of disbelief from the horseman, then heard him yelling in urgency and outrage. I quickly realized that I had taken a bad route and had passed a possible exit, leaving me closing in on what I could already tell was the edge of a platform.

I knew that we were about to be trapped, and so I knew I had to use my one enderpearl. The enderpearl I had kept for years for a situation where my life was in unavoidable danger. I went through my inventory and pulled out the dark blue orb. I had gotten it when I had been out during a thunderstorm. I had heard the dying cry of an enderman near me, and then I had found the pearl. That was how I had first learned that endermen were harmed by water.

I raised the pearl over my head and scanned the Netherscape for a place to throw the pearl. I briefly noticed the lava ocean below, but didn't have time to think much of it. I found a distant location on a raised mass of land dangling just above the molten ocean. Chucking the pearl as hard as I could manage, I quickly turned back to see Witanos on his horse riding up to us.

"You are trapped, give up already…" he growled, then jumped off his horse. Witanos drew his diamond sword and began to approach, "You have forfeited your life by trying to escape. Now, you will die…"

I grabbed Joey and lifted him up. Then, I turned around and looked down at the molten sea below us.

"Joey, you have to trust me…" I muttered. My pig looked down at the ocean of lava, then began to thrash wildly. I could hear the horseman coming even closer to us. "Joey, you have to trust me!" My pig looked up at me, his eyes filled with fear. He seemed to be pleading for me to stop with his eyes. "I won't let you go!" I shouted, and then jumped off the ledge, just as Witanos swung his sword at me. We began to hurl down towards the lava at frightening speed. Joey began letting out primal squeals of terror as he squirmed in my arms. I prayed to the Creator that my pearl would land before I did. I soon began to feel the heat of the lava rising from the fiery ocean.

Suddenly, we were in a different place in the landscape. On solid land. My entire body was filled with nausea. I collapsed to my feet, not just because of the intense adrenaline coursing through my body, but also due to the nausea. Joey lunged out of my arms and grumbled, facing away from me.

"I'm sorry, Joey, but we had no other options…" I pointed out, "You think I wanted to risk falling into a sea of lava and burning alive?" He turned to face me again, and I could see a sad look on his face. I could immediately tell he was homesick. Poor guy.

"I know; I want to go home too… This place is scary…" I empathized with him, looking around. We were in some kind of alcove, with the entire lava ocean only a couple dozen blocks below us.

Suddenly, a low groan caught my attention. I turned to look for source, and what I saw made me jump in my own skin. A few blocks away stood a large humanoid creature. It was partially covered in pink and torn-up flesh. What wasn't covered by flesh was half of its exposed bone structure, many of which were cracked with damage and age. Where the flesh ended was covered in green, the color of rotting skin and decay. The creature also wore a loincloth around its waist, covering its crotch. I guess the creature was technically not naked because of that. I then noticed the shining golden sword it had in its hand, which made me a bit curious, because golden swords weren't often useful. I had heard that they had only been used ceremoniously, even as far back as the times when there were kingdoms.

The being appeared to be some hybrid of a zombie, a skeleton, and a pig. I flinched in both horror and disgust, and felt Joey rush up to my legs, trying to hide from the hideous mob. I remembered Howard had mentioned how there were 'zombie pig creatures' in the Nether, though I found the name zombie pigman to be more appropriate, and plus the name sounded somewhat familiar.

The zombie pigman turned to look at me with its dead, empty eyes. I shuddered again. Then, the pigman began to limp towards me curiously, dragging its sword along with it. Despite this being my first encounter with a creature like it, I had a feeling it wasn't going to attack me unless I attacked first. The look in its eyes had more curiosity and less malice in them. Plus, it was approaching with a lot of effort and struggle, and I knew I had a pretty good chance of being able to get away if things went south.

The pig creature got right up to me and gave me no personal space as it stared into my eyes. I stepped back to both retain my boundaries and to get away from the stench of it. It reeked like a zombie, only worse-probably due to living in a world that was as hot as an active furnace.

The zombie pigman groaned sorrowfully and then walked off. I sighed in relief. We needed to get out of this world…

I quickly scanned the landscape for Witanos and his cronies. I recognized the ledge we had been on previously, but I felt my body chill when I realized that they didn't seem to be there anymore. Where did they go? I turned to my pig.

"Joey, let's go somewhere, anywhere. We just can't stay here…" I muttered. I hoped that they had left upon realizing that I was out of their reach, but I also knew there was a chance that Witanos was trying to find a way to get to me if he had seen me get away. Perhaps I was being watched… I shivered at the thought of this.

Joey started heading in a direction, then looked at me and pointed in the same direction, like he knew where he was going. The gesture reminded me of a wolf pointing to a skeletal dungeon.

"Joey… did you memorize the way back?" I stammered. It might've made some sense, because Joey hadn't been knocked out like I had been when we were abducted, although I had no clue how he would've been able to memorize the path when there was so much distracting terrain. Joey nodded and gave me one of his standard cheeky grins, confirming my realization.

"That's great! We need to return to the Overworld as soon as possible!" I exclaimed. He nodded and continued going the same direction, this time picking up the pace into a little piggy-jog. I followed him. I was hoping that it had been my paranoid imagination, but I had a feeling I was being watched by something other than the pigman.

 **Howard's POV**

"We should've went to get Steve…" I growled, trying hard to ignore the pain from my arm.

"But Howard, you and Travis both contracted the Wither sickness." Jessie pointed out. "You know the Nether is dangerous. If you aren't at peak condition when you go into that place, you're going to be eaten, chewed, and spat out by all the monsters that lurk within…"

The village doctor, Shelly, handed me a potion of healing to drink. I raised the bottle up to my mouth and consumed the contents, feeling the nurturing liquid beginning to flow throughout my body. Feeling stronger, I got back to my feet.

"I shouldn't be here in the recovery hut… Come on! We have to go back for him!" I ordered, then my body surged with pain. I gasped and fell back onto the chair block.

"Howard, you're in no shape! Please, don't push yourself…" Jessie pleaded.

"Look… Jessie, my motto is 'No man left behind' for a reason. Now, I don't know what those skeletons were, or why they took Steve, but we have to go to the Nether and find out!" Just then, Malcolm burst through the door. He panted heavily, as if he had been running all day.

"Malcolm, what happened? I thought you were scouting for other villages…" I recalled.

"I was…" he wheezed, "But I came… across something that I knew… I had to instantly come back early… to tell you…" He looked fragile, as if whatever it was had been a lot for him to cope with both mentally and emotionally.

"What is it? What did you see?" I questioned.

"About a mile north… there was a mob horde unlike anything I had ever seen…" he said. Once I heard this, I immediately stood back up.

"What else?" I asked.

"There seemed to be an unnaturally tall skeleton on a horse made of bones leading the army. I could hear it shouting orders to the mobs using actual speech. And the worst part: they are heading directly to this village."

"What!?" I accidentally shouted. I immediately thought about that skeletal leader I had encountered back in the mines. Was there perhaps a connection? No, there couldn't be… it wasn't like the dark skeleton had been taller than its minions-they had been the same size. And I doubted that the skeleton Malcolm was talking about was of the same race, otherwise he would've explained that. I turned to Jessie.

"Send out the order: Everyone is to return to the village immediately. Recall everyone who is fishing, farming, raising cattle, scouting, and mining. And have all the knights of the village organize at the center of town. Okay? I will be there shortly to boost morale." My girlfriend nodded.

"Will do." Jessie headed off.

"Malcolm, you go with her and spread the order." I ordered.

"Yes sir." he responded and followed behind her. I turned to look at Travis.

"Travis, I don't want you out there if the village becomes attacked by these mobs. You got hurt badly down there, and until you recover, I relieve you of your knight responsibility." He tried to get up as Shelly was tending him, but fell back and clutched his waist, wincing in pain.

"But sir… you know I can't stand by and wait to see what happens!" Travis argued.

"I don't care. You will do as I say. You are not in fighting condition. If those mobs really are coming to invade this village, then you won't be able to do much." I pointed out.

"If I may suggest something…" Shelly said, "How about we surround the village with really tall walls?"

"Normally with mob hordes, that'd be a good idea… But I don't like hearing that they're being led by a skeleton." I muttered. "Mobs organizing… that's a scary thought. And there are ways around a wall for a lot of different mobs. Spiders can climb over them, endermen can teleport through, and of course, creepers can simply blast through."

My body began to feel better, as if the Wither sickness had finally gone away. I got back to my feet and headed towards the door, turning to look back at Shelly.

"Make sure Travis stays here today." I ordered. Travis groaned and she nodded.

"Yes sir." she replied. Then, I went and exited the building, getting myself mentally prepared to address our knights-the heroes of the village.


	7. Chapter 7: The long journey home

Steve's POV

We had been traveling for what felt like an eternity. It was difficult to maneuver around the lava sea, as the land often ended as a lava shore. I wanted to believe that Joey still knew where he was going, but at this point we had backtracked so many times that I was starting to doubt.

We went over to a fairly large hill, then we began to climb. I got over the first block just fine, but then it began to get even steeper. I had to grab the ledge and lift myself up onto the block. I then reached down and grabbed ahold of Joey, pulling him up with me.

Looking back up at the mountain, I could see that the next ledge was three blocks up. I would have to jump up to grab onto it, and I didn't even know how I was going to bring Joey up.

"Screw it." I said and took out my trusty pickaxe, then mined away into the mountain. I dug at an upwards angle so we'd eventually reach the peak.

Eventually, we did in fact reach the peak, but I was exhausted. All this rushing around in the hot temperatures of the Nether was seriously burning me up. I was now casually gasping for breath. We needed to rest. Sleep actually sounded pretty good right about now…

"Joey, I think we should take a break and rest…" I wheezed, eyeing our surroundings. This was a pretty good place to sleep strategically. There wasn't much around us besides pigmen, and if anything else did try to sneak up on us, it was going to be very easy to spot it.

Joey groaned and tapped his foot on the ground. Of course, we needed to make some kind of shelter before we rested!

"Hold on, Joey. Just gimme a second-" I got to work with my pickaxe, mining away at the nearby netherrack that made up the ground until I had cleared out one layer of the hill. Then, I moved around quickly, placing netherrack around netherrack and netherrack on top of netherrack until we were contained within a six-by-six hut with some open windows.

"There we go! Safe and sound!" I cheered. Joey grunted happily and presented one of his feet to me. I smiled and gave him a high-five.

"Now then, let's get some rest, then continue onwards once we wake up." I said, then let out a loud yawn and covered my mouth. Joey nodded and began searching for a comfy space within the shelter.

I laid down in the center of the base, feeling the rough ground against my arms and back. I wished that I had some kind of bed with me. Joey trudged over and curled up beside me. I smiled and pat him gently on the head.

It was going to tough, but we were going to get back to the Overworld. I was determined to make sure that at least happened. In the meantime, I had to get some sleep. I wondered if I was going to have any dreams this time, and what they were going to be about if that was the case. I slowly closed my eyes.

All of a sudden, my body shook with powerful force and instantly burned with pain as I heard an explosion erupt from underneath me. I felt myself get launched against the ceiling and grunted as I made contact, then yelled out in pain as I landed in a deep crater where I had been.

It was smoking all around me. I could see chunks of netherrack on the ground beside me, and there was a lot of fire around me. My mind was fuzzy, I had just been about to fall asleep and then everything suddenly happened. Realization caught up and I began to panic.

"Joey!" I called as I climbed out of the smoking crater. Silence. "Joey!" I called out again, not wanting to think about what might've happened. I heard a squeal, and instantly my terror began to disappear.

"Joey!" I stammered, relief overcoming my body once I saw the pig. He was laying right in front of the wall. His body was tinted slightly reddish in different places, whether from burns or bruising, I didn't know. The poor pig must've slammed against the wall during the explosion.

"Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling by him. Joey grunted, his grunt higher than usual. No doubt he was in a panic, but didn't seem to be too badly hurt.

"Thank goodness you're okay…" I muttered, then looked back at the smoking crater.

It was a massive hole in the ground. It was as if a creeper had exploded from under us, but with even more force and destruction. I had no clue as to why it had happened but began to speculate, recounting what had been going on.

We had been on solid netherrack ground at the time. I hadn't heard any kind of hissing, and plus there didn't seem to be any creepers in the Nether, so I had no reason to believe that they were the reason for the explosion. All I had been doing was trying to get some sleep… My eyes widened with shock when I suspected I had found the problem.

"We can't sleep…" I mumbled with disbelief. Joey oinked curiously. "That's what I think happened… We had tried to fall asleep, and we exploded." Just then, I thought I heard a distant soft purr echo past me. Joey oinked again, and I shushed him, trying to focus on listening to our environment. Another soft noise came from the distance, this one being a chuckle-like sound.

"What is that…?" I mouthed. Another soft sound, this one similar to a call. My body started to become tense. My heart began to beat rapidly at the fear of the unknown as I looked across the horizon.

A pale mob appeared in the distance. The creature had what appeared to be a sad face on it with closed eyes. Several tentacles waved around under it, and I quickly realized that it looked like some kind of squid. The ghostly being flew closer to us. I felt my body beginning to tremble in unease, but I couldn't move. I was frozen in place.

The pale creature flew closer to us, purring softly on the way, and then opened its eyes. I shuddered at the sight-they were redstone-red. Its eyes locked on to me, and the creature kept flying until it was only about a dozen blocks away. It was then that I realized with shock that the mob was many times larger than Joey and me(it had looked big from a distance, but I hadn't thought it'd be as huge as it was). It let out a call as it stared at me with its hungry eyes, and I took a step backwards, anticipating the worst.

The creature noticed my minor act of cowardice and opened its mouth, screaming and shooting out a massive fire charge at me. Joey let out a pig shriek in terror as I quickly jumped out of the way and reached into my inventory, grabbing for my sword. And then I remembered what happened to it.

"Shoot…!" I growled and tried to come up with another solution. The monster chuckled and then spat out another charge at me. I lunged away from the flaming charge before it crashed against the ground, blasting a small crater in the netherrack surface.

"Joey! Come to me!" I shouted as I drew my pickaxe and began to hastily bury into the ground.

My pig jumped in with me, and I dug down until we were a few blocks below. Then, I picked up a block of netherrack and tossed it up, sealing us underground. The monster moaned sorrowfully. I could hear it even underground. I took a moment to catch my breath.

Suddenly, the ceiling was blasted away by another projectile from the beast. I could see the creature peering into our space, smiling deeply. My fear grew more, and I continued to mine away as fast as I could. Joey squealed in terror while I dug. I broke a block and an orange bubbling liquid began to pour out. My mind instantly went into terror.

"Lava!" I shouted in warning and jumped back, but the soupy molten liquid seeped closer. It was flowing much faster than I had ever seen lava flow. "Get away from it!" I ordered to Joey. Fortunately, he was still behind me. I began placing blocks of netherrack around as fast as I could, trying to block off the lava in a blind panic. The netherish mob from above chuckled as it watched me struggling.

Finally, I stopped the flow of the lava, then picked Joey up in one arm and proceeded to mine a tunnel in the other direction. The mob spat out a fire charge, but I managed to avoid it. After a couple seconds of fast-paced mining, we had managed to get away from the monster's eyesight, though I could hear its wails as it tried to peek in the hole.

I set Joey back down onto the ground and breathed deeply to try to compose myself. My heart was racing, and I was pumped full of adrenaline. I felt like I was going to pass out from the intensity of the situation we were in. The monster let out one more moan before silence ensued. I waited for a moment before cautiously walking back to the entrance.

All of a sudden, the entrance of the shelter was filled by three white tentacles reaching in. I turned to run back to the tunnel, but one of them wrapped around my waist. I screamed as it yanked me out of the shelter.

I was brought to the smiling face of the beast. It stared at me with its open red eyes. I reached into my inventory and tried to grasp for something-anything-that could help me in this situation. Then, I brought out a bow that I had gotten a while ago. Good, but do I have any arrows? I thought and reached in my inventory again.

I felt pointy tips and pulled out five arrows. In that moment, I felt like the luckiest man in the world. I quickly nocked one arrow and aimed as the monster began to open its mouth. Then, I shot the arrow and it hit the mob on the cheek, eliciting a cry from it. Its grip on my body loosened, and I tried to shake myself free. The creature tightened its grip again, this time pushing my right arm against my body. I was unable to use my bow anymore, so I did the next thing that came to mind-I bit down on the appendage as hard as I could.

The monster screamed with a chilling holler and let go of me. I fell to the ground with a grunt. Fortunately, we had not been high off the ground, so I wasn't hurt too badly by the landing. I raised my bow and readied a second arrow.

"If you want to live, then leave right now!" I hollered with a bellowing voice. The beast moaned in pain and swung around its tentacles, but then looked back at me, its eyes full of hatred.

Letting out another shriek, it spat out a fire charge at me. At the same time, I fired my arrow, hoping my aim was at least decent. The arrow slammed against the massive charge and burned up immediately, but then something happened that surprised me. The fire charge flew back at the mob and struck it, causing the mob to flash red and let out a final hiss before falling sideways and turning into smoke. A piece of gunpowder fell to the ground, and I noticed something else fall as well. I wanted to check it out, but I remembered that Joey was in the hole.

"Joey!" I called as I rushed to the ineffective shelter and peered inside. I saw him inside, looking straight up at me. He squealed in joy to see me alive. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there!" I mined a few blocks out of the ground to make a stairway for the pig to jump out and he joined me. I looked at where the creature had died. A white nugget-like object bobbed just above the ground.

"That was close… Thank the Creator I had a bow and some arrows…" I said, looking at the bow in my hand. I was never that good with archery, and so I didn't usually resort to using a bow. But now, the bow felt like a gift from the Creator.

I went over to the strange white object and picked it up, looking at it. It felt cool and a little liquidy, almost like a tear, though I didn't know why I decided to compare it to that of all things. I chose to pocket the mysterious thing away in my inventory. Who knew what kinds of things it could be used for?

I decided to take a look at how many arrows I had left. I had used up two arrows during that battle, and I pulled out three remaining. Hopefully I wouldn't need any more. I put them away and turned back to Joey.

"Joey, are we getting close?" I asked him. He nodded his head and grinned. "Awesome! You lead the way then."

I had just about had it with this place. Undead pig people, fast-flowing lava, AND flying squid-like monsters? Nope, I didn't like this world at all. I decided that once we got back to the Overworld, I was never going to come back to this place again. Screw the Nether.

After what had felt like days, I noticed a black portal frame in the distance, lit by a purple portal light, as we were climbing a mountain.

"There it is!" I gasped, and grabbed Joey and lifted him up. We went over block after block until we stood on top of the mountain. And then I realized that the portal was on a pocket of land high above the ground. Instantly, my heart began to sink, but I didn't let myself fall into hopelessness. We just need to get enough netherrack and build up to the platform! my mind pointed out. I cheered up and brought out my pickaxe again.

"Stay here, Joey, I just need to get a stack or so of netherrack." I assured him, then I began to mine into the ground, digging out an eight-by-eight layer into the ground.

After a moment dedicated to mining, I had an entire stack of netherrack. I jumped out of the plot and looked up, seeing just how high the platform was. If Joey wasn't with me, I could have easily just towered up to the ledge, but here that wasn't an option. I had to make a stairway to the platform. I decided that I might as well mine up one more layer of netherrack to get a second stack, just in case.

Once I mined up the second layer, I mined out of the plot and watched the ledge as I went around, trying to get to a good angle. I needed to be at a forty-five-degree angle from when I started to build to the platform, and so I set my gaze at a diagonal angle and walked around until the ledge was at the middle of my eyesight. Then, I jumped up and placed a block below me. I then went to work and began to rapidly build the stairway.

After a moment, I finished the stairs with only a couple dozen netherrack blocks remaining. My pig started to jump up the stairs to join me, though he was still pretty far away. I turned to look at the ominous portal. It emitted eerie sounds just as it had in the Overworld. Purple particles similar to those from endermen danced around it. I didn't want anything to do with the portal, but I knew it was our way home. We had to go through to leave the Nether and return to the Overworld.

One weird thing that I noticed was that the entire platform was actually an alcove hanging from a large landmass. There was no exit that led to the lower ground-at least not from what I could see. I didn't even know how Witanos could have possibly brought us down.

After a few moments, Joey had made it up here with me. I looked at him and smiled.

"You ready to go through that portal?" I asked excitedly. He nodded eagerly and gave me another one of his cheeky smiles. "Alright, let's go back to the village!" We took a step forward and then I felt a sense of impending doom. I hesitated, trying to find out why my body was starting to shake.

"So… the human thought he could escape from my horsemen and I…" a deep voice grumbled from behind us. I turned around, and what I saw took me by surprise.

Standing behind us was a person standing with his head facing down. He wore clothes that I recognized to be very similar to my own. In fact, they were the same exact colors as mine! Even his skin and hair were the same color and hue as mine.

"I see that you are confused… Forgive me for my rudeness and allow me to introduce myself." the man said in an ancient and gravelly voice as he slowly brought his head up. I immediately realized two things about his eyes. One: His eyes were glowing, and two: they were pure white. Just like the eyes from my last dream… "My name is Herobrine, and I have come to kill you myself." he sneered. I felt sick and clutched my stomach.

Suddenly, two Wither skeletons appeared from the portal frame behind us, as if they had been waiting behind the portal. I spotted Witanos climbing up the last blocks of the stairs behind him, then he went to stand to the side of Herobrine.

"No…" I mumbled, wanting to throw up. We had gotten so close to getting out of this hellish world. Joey rushed to my legs, his body shuddering with fear. I raised my hands in surrender.

"Look, I-I-I don't want any kind of trouble, mister. We just want to return home and live our lives…" I tried to explain to the ominous being. He stared straight at me.

"You don't know who I am, do you?" he questioned in his gravelly voice, taking on a more skeptical tone. I raked my mind, trying to think of a 'Herobrine,' but nothing came up.

"No…" I replied, hoping he wouldn't take offense to it. In hind sight, I probably should have gone with 'yes.'

"That doesn't surprise me at all… Of course your human ancestors would have me forgotten…" he grumbled. "You humans are the scum of the Overworld-of my Overworld." he growled, though with a smile, and then disappeared in a column of smoke. I cautiously looked around and saw him reappear to my left.

"Uh… look, I don't know why you hate people, but please let me go! I'm no threat to you!" I pleaded as I turned to look at him. He continued to stare at me, a smile forming across his face.

"Your fear feels good. It makes me feel… powerful…" he sneered, then disappeared again, reappearing in my face. I staggered backwards, having been startled.

"Human emotion has always influenced me in many different ways. It once was happiness and joy that invigorated me. And now, it is fear that empowers me." he disappeared a third time. I assumed he was using some kind of teleportation. I turned around and saw him standing at the portal.

"Look, I just want to live a new life without struggling to survive against mobs every day! I beg you, please, let us go!" I pleaded. Herobrine looked up at the ceiling in annoyance.

"This is what the Creator chose to try to defeat me? Pitiful, he stands no chance! I am offended. He cannot possibly be the hero of this age of humans." he chastised to the ceiling.

"But he is, my king. You know that." Witanos reminded.

"Even so…" He turned to face the two Wither skeletons blocking the portal. "Let him through." I heard the Wither skeleton leader collapse to the ground.

"You can't be serious, my king?!" he choked.

"You heard me. I will not kill him right now. It is as he said, he is of no threat to me whatsoever. I may hate humans with every fiber of my being, but I will not lower myself to end the life of this feeble excuse of one. I have standards." he replied. The Wither skeletons reluctantly walked away from the portal and Herobrine walked out of the way, leaving the path to the Nether portal open.

I cautiously walked forward, eyeing every one of their movements as I went along. Joey stayed behind my feet, and I didn't blame him. But just as I was passing by Herobrine, he blocked my shoulder with his.

"If any of my horsemen catch you again, they will kill you without hesitation. And if you ever decide to stand against me, I will kill you myself. And believe me, you have not seen what I am capable of." he growled with a sneer, then pushed his shoulder against mine, knocking me to the side. I managed to keep my footing and walked past the Wither skeletons. Then, shaking without control, I nervously went through the portal with my pig. The purple otherworldly light of the portal began to spin in my vision, and I felt my body travel between worlds.

 **And just like that, Steve has encountered Herobrine for the first time. So, what do you guys think about Herobrine? Be sure to let me know, I want to know the viewer reception.**


	8. Chapter 8: Back into the Overworld

The feeling of nausea filled up my chest so badly that I wanted to throw up. All I could see was purple swirling in my vision. Scary ambience was the only thing I could hear. It sounded like it was playing inside of my head. Then, the purple suddenly changed to different shades of green, white and blue as I flew out of the portal and landed on the soft ground with a grunt. Groaning, I tried to lift myself off the ground, but then felt my pig land on my back and landed back on my chest.

Joey was quick to jump off of me. I slowly pushed myself off the ground and tried to get onto my feet, but the nausea was too great, and I had to kneel for a few moments.

Finally, the nausea subsided and I steadily got back onto my feet. I looked around, though my eyes were still a bit foggy. But I immediately noticed something was off.

We were back in the Overworld. It appeared to be morning. We were clearly on the surface of the world. But that didn't make any sense. We had gone through a portal under the village. Why did the portal take us to the surface instead of the original portal underground? And then, I gasped in horror once I could register my surroundings.

There were the crumbling remains of buildings all around. Many houses had fallen apart, their blocks spilling onto the gravel road. Some of the buildings were still on fire. Lava spilled from the ruins of the blacksmith's forge and flowed across the ground. The church's top half must have been knocked off the base and shattered, because it was missing and there was a ton of cobblestone blocks on the ground around the building.

I could see many craters in the landscape, and I knew they were very recent. The faint smell of sulphur still lingered in the air. The entire place was in ruins! I knew with daunting certainty that it had to be the village, but I didn't want to accept it.

"What happened… What the hell happened?" I looked down at Joey, who returned my expression of disbelief with a face of horror. "Joey… What the hell happened!?" I yelled. He squealed in disbelief. There was no sign of people. We ran all over the village in a frantic hurry, desperate to find someone, anyone!

We searched the entire day until the sun was starting to near the horizon, but found nothing. And then I sat on the nearest cobblestone block, still in denial about what I was seeing. My pig companion walked up to my feet, giving me a sad look. I tried to keep calm and think about what I was going to do next, but then I broke down into tears. I couldn't stop the tear particles from streaming down my face.

"This was our one chance to live again, Joey…" I sobbed, "This was the one chance we had to finally make things to go back to the way they should be…" Through my tears, I could see that even Joey was tearing up.

"Why did this have to happen?" I asked to no one in particular, "What even happened while we were gone…" But I knew there was no one who could answer my questions. Everyone was just simply gone. After a few more minutes of crying without words, I continued.

"I don't want to live anymore, Joey… We've gone through too much…" I wept.

It felt like all the light of the world had vanished. It felt like all the years of effort I had put into finding a new home had been nothing but a waste. I had tried so hard to remain optimistic through the years, but my hope was now all gone. It took ten years for Joey and me to finally find civilization, but it felt like we hadn't even gotten to live there three days before the Creator took it all away. I wanted to die. I just wanted to end it all. And as the sun disappeared from the horizon, I had no motivation or plans to build a shelter for tonight.

After a minute of grim silence in the darkening ruins of the village, I heard what sounded like cobblestone blocks shifting in the distance. I quickly turned to look for the source, then heard more shifting and pinpointed the location to be around the collapsed remains of the well. Suddenly, I became curious and stood up, then began to approach the source. Joey silently followed behind me.

As I drew closer, I started to hear exhausted grunts, followed by the sound of pounding. A few more steps and I noticed a familiar person. It was Howard, and his lower body was trapped under a wall of cobblestone that somehow hadn't broken apart, trying desperately to break it apart with his own fists. Clearly, he wasn't making much progress. I was filled with a sudden light of hope.

"H-Howard?" I gasped, unable to believe my eyes. He stopped and turned to look at me.

"Steve!? How did you make it out of the Nether?" he stammered in surprise.

"A lot of miracles. And teamwork." I said, smiling at Joey.

"Uh huh, you'll have to tell me about it later. Now get me out of here!" he demanded.

"Okay, but you need to be quiet." I insisted as I brought out my pickaxe. Then, I began to slam the pickaxe down onto the cobblestone wall on top of him. After a few strikes, one block broke and the rest separated into their own individual blocks. Howard sighed in relief and got up to his own feet.

"Thank Notch you got here… I'm not sure what happened with that wall… It should've shattered upon falling down." he muttered. I couldn't help but agree that it was something that shouldn't have normally happened. "If you hadn't arrived when you did, I would've been zombie or spider food for sure."

"We're still not out of the dark." I pointed out. I could already see mobs in the distance all around us. It was only a matter of time before they noticed us. "We need to make a shelter!"

"You got that right!" Howard agreed. "You got a torch? Because it's about to get very, very dark."

"Yeah, I got one." I said as I put away my pickaxe and replaced it with an unlit torch, and then I slid it against the rough cobblestone and ignited it.

"I didn't say to light it! Now, mobs can see us better!" Howard scolded. I realized my error and cursed silently. I looked at the torch-its fire was burning fiercely. I didn't see how we could put it out right away.

"Look, we don't even need to make a shelter, there's a building that hasn't been too badly destroyed!" he said, pointing to a house next to the blacksmith's forge.

"Let's go there then!" I turned to look at Joey, who was eyeing some of the closer mobs anxiously. "Come on, Joey!" We all headed for the building.

As soon as we each had made it inside, I slammed the door shut. I placed the torch on the wall and we all took a moment to catch our breath. I looked around the building. It seemed to be a library, as it had a long row of old books hanging over a row of chair blocks. A couple of the windows were broken, but none of the openings were low enough to the ground for any mobs to get to us.

"Howard… what happened to the village?" I asked. He looked back at me with a fractured look in his eyes, like he had been broken on the inside. Tears slowly streamed down his face.

"The whole thing was a damn massacre… Yesterday, shortly after you had been taken into the Nether, the village went under siege. There was an army of mobs, and they were led by a very tall skeleton." he revealed, "I thought we could take out his mobs with our iron golems before his mobs could even make it into the village, but this skeletal leader was very clever and had the village surrounded by his army."

He looked like he was starting to have difficulty remembering, "I know that the iron golems weren't enough, and we had to send out the warriors. But then they weren't enough… I remember being in the chaos as the army started to close in. People were running around in a blind panic, and then there were explosions… and then… and then I think that's when I got crushed by that wall… I lost consciousness and didn't wake up until earlier when you found me." he explained. Joey and I were silent. I could only imagine how bad it had gotten after he had been knocked unconscious. His eyes widened with shock and he suddenly gasped.

"Oh my Not… no…" Howard murmured.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked. He surged forwards and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me aggressively.

"Jessie… where is she?" he interrogated. I tried to free my shoulders, but he had a grip of iron.

"Gah! Let go of me!" I insisted, but he wouldn't let go.

"Tell me that you saw her!" he demanded.

"Let go!" I shouted in a panic, but he still didn't. Joey backed up and then tackled Howard, knocking him away from me to the ground.

"Ow…" he groaned and rubbed his head. "Steve, look, I'm sorry that I did that… but did you see Jessie?" he asked, slowly getting up. I gulped nervously. I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but now I had no choice.

"No… I haven't seen Jessie…" I answered. He staggered backwards as if he had just been struck with a fist.

"No… she can't be dead…" he muttered, "I promised her dad I wouldn't let anything happen to her… and I failed…" He began to sob.

"Well, maybe she's not?" I suggested hopefully, trying to keep him quiet. The last thing I wanted was for the mobs to hear us and bang on our door all night. He looked back up at me.

"Then, where the hell would she be!?" he snapped.

"I don't know…" I stammered. His face softened a little bit.

"Look… you're going to need some sleep. I know where another village is, and tomorrow we're going to head out to go there. It's going to take a few days to get there, so you're going to need rest. Right now, I need a moment…" he mumbled. My heart skipped a beat. There were more villages? I wanted to express my joy in hearing that, but now was a really bad time for that.

"Good night…" I told him and went over to one of the chair blocks on the far side of the building. I sat back in the seat and set my head down onto the wooden table right in front of me. While it wasn't the most comfortable place to lay my head on, I tried to make the most of a bad situation. We were alive. We were safe. And best of all, it was no longer just me and Joey.

I noticed that Joey wasn't with me and looked around for him, then quickly spotted him by Howard, giving him a sympathetic look. Howard was looking away, still sobbing. I felt really bad for Howard. Hopefully, if Jessie was alive, we would find her. But I had a dark feeling that she wasn't…

"Joey, let's give Howard a moment to himself, okay?" I insisted. He turned around, a sad look in his eyes, and came back to me, then jumped up onto the chair block right next to me and nestled up to me.

I thought about all the people I had come to know at this village. There hadn't been a lot, but the people I did get to meet stood out in my mind. It was horrible to know that they were now dead. I didn't want to accept it, but I knew deep down in my heart that they were gone… No matter what happened now, we had to live for them all.

I lay my head back down and closed my eyes. It took a while, but eventually I fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9: The last memory

**Hey guys, it's me again. So, I decided that since Chapter Eight was so short(just over 2k words), I'd post Chapter Nine as well, which will finally explain what happened to Alex. And we're at the second to last chapter of The Struggle For Survival, before I'll begin to post chapters from the second book. I'll explain more tomorrow. Enjoy!**

 _I dreamed Alex and I were opening our last presents._

" _Let's see what you got me…" Alex said as she opened one of her gift boxes. "Wait-a potion of fire resistance!? How'd you get this?"_

" _I killed a witch a while back and she dropped it." I explained, remembering how it happened._

 _Last year, we had been out in the nearby mountains during the nighttime trying to make it back to our shelter, and a witch attacked us. I had managed to push the witch into a lava fall, and as she burned she was drinking a fire resistance potion. I had managed to kill her before the witch fully consumed the potion, and she had dropped the potion. It had been the first time I had ever killed a witch, and I was sure the memory was going to stick with me for life. She hugged me in gratitude._

" _Thank you so much!" she praised._

" _Well, I know how much you hate lava, so I knew it'd make a good gift." I replied, smiling. I opened my gift box, then looked back at her. She was giving me a huge smile. Inside the gift box was a single book, titled: How to Learn to Read: For Dummies._

" _Ha-ha." I said sarcastically to her. "I still know how to read, you know."_

" _Well, I'm genuinely surprised by that, Steven. You haven't read a book in five years. I think the first book you've read in years should be that." I looked back at the cover: How to Learn to Read: For Dummies-what a great first book._

" _Yeah, that's real funny." I playfully looked back at her. She started to chuckle. "How about you open your next present?"_

" _Okay." she said as she grabbed the next large gift box, then opened it. She gasped. "You did not!" I heard a wolf bark._

" _I did." I smiled as she pulled out the wolf I had tamed the other day just for her._

" _Wow, thank you so much!" she practically hollered as she embraced the animal. The wolf panted and licked her cheek affectionately._

" _I'll call him… Chief!" Alex called out excitedly. Chief the dog wiggled out of her arms and landed on the ground, then went over to sniff Joey over. Joey sniffed back at the wolf._

" _Good name! So, now I get to keep Joey, right?" I chuckled. The pig gave me a shocked look during the sniffing process, and I could imagine he was thinking, 'Wait, what?' Alex looked back at me._

" _Of course not. He's still my buddy too." She playfully poked me._

" _I know that." I giggled._

" _Can you open the last present?" she requested. I nodded and turned to the last gift box she had given me. Wondering what could be inside, I opened up the lid._

 _Inside the chest was a diamond, but I could see something looked different about it. It was coated in a golden outline, encased in gold. It also had a small lead attached to it. Immediately, I realized that it was meant to be a necklace._

" _Whoa… how did you make this…?" I asked. I had heard from old tales about how there used to be people that were able to craft uncraftable items in the past, but those kinds of people hadn't existed in many years. I do remember Mom telling us when we were little about the tales of one of our ancestors that was able to craft such items._

" _I didn't. Mom had given it to me a long time ago." she explained._

" _But… don't you want to keep it?" I asked._

" _Well, anything from our parents belongs to both of us." she reminded. "If I wanted it back, you'd give it back, right?"_

" _Sure, but… it just seems kinda wrong for me to take it if Mom gave it to you…" I pointed out._

" _Steven, I have no problem with it. We both own it, just don't worry about it." she assured._

" _Okay…" I muttered, then picked up the necklace and put it away into my inventory. Then, I noted that the sun was almost down._

" _You know; it's getting to be nighttime. I'm going to bed." I told her._

" _I would too, but I want to harvest the sugarcane near the lake first. We're so close to having all those bookshelves, and then we just need to get the diamond and obsidian for the table. After that, we'll finally have a completed enchantment library!" Alex said triumphantly._

" _Yeah, uh, thanks for explaining the obvious goal again, Alex." I muttered as I rubbed my eyes, then yawned. "See you in the morning…"_

" _Good night, Steven." She smiled one last time and went out the door with her new pet as I headed to my bed._

 _I landed on my soft bedspread. I was so tired, and I hadn't even done anything today besides chasing a couple wolves! It was surprising how exhausting just being alive was sometimes. And after tonight, the new year was going to start. A new year, a new opportunity to find civilization. I just hoped we would find it soon._

 _I felt the exhaustion cloud out my mind, and my eyes were glued shut. I soon fell asleep._

 _I awoke when I felt something slam against me and knock me to the floor. Quickly, I opened my eyes and felt an instant rush of adrenaline, reaching into my inventory to pull out a pickaxe, although I meant to pull out a sword. I scanned the room for mobs, but saw Joey on my bed. He had a look of panic on his face, and he was squealing very loud and rapidly. I was concerned, he had never acted like this before._

" _Joey, what's wrong?" I questioned. He jumped off the bed and rushed to the door. Oh no… did something happen to Alex? I thought and hurried after him, opening the door for him. Joey ran outside the house._

 _It was still nighttime and snowing overhead. I ran outside to Joey and looked through the woods behind the house where he was pointing with his leg. I gasped in horror as I saw a couple chunks from the house Alex was on the ground with a large zombie over her. She was trying desperately to push the evil monster off of her, but there were several more zombies rapidly closing in. I could see Chief attacking one of the zombies, but the wolf wasn't going to be much help against so many. Joey squealed with panic._

" _Hold on! I'm coming!" I shouted and drew my iron sword, then sprinted to her as fast as I could._

 _Once I got in range, I swung my sword to the side and knocked the mob off of her, allowing her to get back to her feet and pull out her bow and an arrow._

 _Suddenly, a zombie grabbed onto me and pushed me down to the ground. I cried out in panic and tried to push the fiend off of me, but it lurched down and bit at my shoulder, causing a flare of pain to shoot throughout my body as I flashed red._

" _Steven!" Alex called as she punched the zombie in the face(which I would never do), and then pushed it off of me._

 _Just then, another zombie knocked her back to the ground and bit her, causing her to flash red. Protective anger surged through my body, and I attacked the zombie with my sword, knocking it away from my sister._

" _Are you okay?" I asked her._

" _We have to get away from these mobs!" she answered._

" _Agreed! Be sure to bring your wolf!" I reminded as we began to run towards the house. She looked at him and whistled and the wolf stopped attacking a zombie target. I looked over for Joey, but couldn't see him._

 _Suddenly, I heard a pig shriek and saw him backing away from the corner of the house. A zombie and a skeleton were following him, bow raised and arrow ready. The pig jumped to the side as the skeleton fired its arrow, narrowly dodging the projectile as it buried itself into the ground beside him._

" _Joey!" I shouted and got my sword ready to attack as I charged to the skeleton. It noticed me and shot an arrow at me, which I tried to jump past, but I felt a piercing pain as the arrow embedded itself into my chest. I hollered in pain, but slammed my sword against the mob as hard as I could, destroying it instantly._

 _The zombie lunged at me and pushed me against the wall of the house. I groaned and growled as it moaned and tried to bite me. I pushed back as hard as I could, but I could tell the zombie had more strength than I. It began to overpower me before Joey tackled the undead monster to the ground, causing the mob to groan as it blinked red. I brought my sword down onto it and killed the zombie._

 _Three more zombies and two spiders came from the woods, some of them blocking our path to the house. That meant there were now over a dozen mobs beginning to surround us. If we were surrounded… we were done for…_

" _We need to go into the woods!" I told Alex. She looked back at me with disbelief._

" _What? No! We can take them!" she insisted, raising her bow. "Looking at them now, there aren't as many as I thought!"_

" _No, we can't. We need to head away from the house and the mobs, then circle around and back to the house!" Alex paused, thinking to herself. "Alex, this isn't up for discussion! We need to go now!" I ordered._

" _Okay… let's go!" The three of us ran from the house. A spider lunged at me, but I narrowly managed to avoid being struck by the large arachnid. I could see Alex's wolf charging down a skeleton that had been aiming at us. At least that was one less mob to worry about._

 _Once the mobs were a safer distance away, we began to turn to get ready to head to the house from a different angle. Then, I heard the distorted roar from behind._

 _I turned around and noticed Alex on the ground, dazed. An enderman was standing over her, shaking with rage. Purple particles hovered around the mob, shooting across its body over as its angry howl grew in volume. She must've slammed against it and angered it while we were running. My whole body began to shake with something else-fear. I had never fought against an enderman, and I knew they were dangerously powerful._

 _The enderman unhinged its jaws as it turned to look down at her._ She is in danger, Steve… _I thought,_ you have to save her! _Raising my sword, I let out a pathetic-sounding battle cry and ran forwards at the dark behemoth, then slammed my sword at it. The mob let out a distorted cry of pain and was pushed to the side by my attack._

 _Suddenly, the dark monster shot its head in my direction. I could see its gaping black jaws even in the dark. Purple particles flew around the beast even more aggressively, and the monster took a step towards me. I froze up and couldn't do anything but stare back into its hateful pink eyes. I could hear Joey right next to me, squealing and pushing my legs, trying to get me to move, but my entire body was completely locked. I couldn't move. The beast surged forward and slammed its fist against my face. I immediately went down, and everything started to go fuzzy._

 _I heard what sounded like the shouting of Alex's voice, followed by a distorted growl of the enderman as it turned on her. I heard and saw Alex's wolf-a small white blur-jump at the enderman, but the dark monster slammed it away. Then, it struck its fist against the top of Alex's head, causing her to crumple to the ground like I had, except she wasn't moving._ You have to get up, Steve, you have to! _my mind pushed,_ You're the man of the house, you have to protect your sister! Mom and Dad would've expected that from you!

 _I pushed as hard as I could to lift myself off the ground and got back to my feet. My vision was still fuzzy, but I looked for the enderman and found it standing over Alex's unconscious body. It glared at me hatefully. I lifted my sword and took an unsteady step towards it. Then, the enderman vanished with a zip!_

 _Moments later, I heard it shriek in anger and I flew forwards as the enderman struck me from behind. I cried out in pain as I landed on the ground. My entire body ached with pain. It felt like I was about to die, and the mob had only hit me twice…_

 _I pushed myself to look for Alex. If I was going to die here, I at least wanted to protect her. I found her a few blocks in front of me. Then, I felt the creature stomp down on my body multiple times, causing me to cry out in pain even more, and it roared chaoticly._

 _I wasn't sure if I heard correctly, but I thought I heard the enderman let out a distorted cry of pain. And then, I heard an animalistic growl. Then, another distorted grunt as the monster was pushed into sight. I could see Chief and Joey trying to do what little they could to help out. Chief was lunging and biting at the beast while Joey charged and tackled it, making it unsteady._

 _The enderman managed to grab ahold of the wolf mid-lunge and held its body with both hands. Then, the behemoth threw Chief down to the ground, releasing an agonized whine from the wolf. Joey tried to tackle to enderman again, but the enderman vanished. Seconds later, the monster charged the pig from behind and kicked the pig, sending Joey flying into a tree trunk._

" _No…" I groaned, praying to the Creator Almighty that they were alright. The enderman, seeing it had won, stopped shaking._

 _The enderman looked down curiously at Alex, who was still unconscious. Its jaws were still bared. Then, it bent down and touched her arm with its thin black limbs cautiously. I didn't know what it was doing, but I couldn't let it kill her! Anger and adrenaline still flowed through my body, empowering me, and I tried with all my might to move, groaning with the effort. The black beast eyed me and let loose a faint vocalized growl, but didn't seem interested in attacking anymore._

" _Leave… my sister… alone…" I groaned. I lifted my arm and reached out to them, but I was too far away. The enderman grabbed onto her and they both vanished. I watched as Chief's limp body vanished as well, likely teleporting to wherever the enderman was taking Alex._

" _No…" I moaned weakly. I had failed to protect Alex, and now she was done for. I wanted to die. "No… no… no…" My body suddenly went limp and my arm fell to the ground. "No…" I moaned as I slipped into unconsciousness._


	10. Chapter 10: The journey begins anew

**Hey guys, I'm here again. So, this is supposed to be the final chapter of The Struggle For Survival, and it is on another website where I uploaded the story. But good news, I will continue to post more from my second book as if they're all the same book. I've gotta start uploading less though so I can catch up with my writing. So, I'll probably start uploading once every two days from now on. Thanks for getting this far, and don't forget to leave a review! Peace out!**

I opened my eyes and saw sunlight shining through the windows, the notches in the door, and a hole in the roof. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I knew I had experienced yet another dream last night, but I couldn't recall what it had been about.

After a moment of thinking to myself, I realized that I had relived my worst memory. And after that, I couldn't take it. I felt tears stream down my face as I recalled the memory, thinking about everything I did wrong. I shouldn't have let Alex head out to harvest sugarcane that night. At the very least, I should have gone with her. I could have done more to protect Alex. Her death was my fault.

"Steve?" Howard's voice snapped me out of my miserable thoughts. I looked up at him, he had been helping himself to a loaf of bread at a table on the far side of the library. He looked to be in a much better mood this morning than he had last night-well, not a better mood, more like less upset. "Are you crying?"

"N-no! Nothing-it's nothing…" I snapped, quickly wiping away the tears.

"What happened? What did you dream about?" he asked.

"How do you know I was dreaming last night?" I questioned.

"You were… very distressed in your sleep. Kept saying Alice or something like that, and then a whole lot of nos." he revealed. "Plus, you were tossing and turning a lot. Who's this Alice? Is she someone you know?"

"It's Alex. And she was my sister…" I explained.

"Was?" he noted.

"Yes…"

"Oh wow… I'm terribly sorry…" he apologized.

"Don't worry about it… I just need a moment to straighten myself…" I told him.

"Go ahead, we aren't leaving until midday." he assured in a much kinder voice as he went back to munching on his loaf of bread.

Immediately, my hand went into my inventory and I pulled out the necklace. It had been the last thing she had ever given me, and it held such great value to me, I hadn't even put it away into a chest in years. It had belonged to both my mom and my sister, and I was never going to let anything happen to it.

I missed my parents. I missed Chief. But of course, most of all I missed Alex. During those years we spent on our own together, we were so close. I still felt incredibly responsible for everything that had happened on that night. I wished I could have gone back and relived that night outside of the dream world, just so that I could have saved Alex and Chief. But no matter how many times I had begged the Creator to give me a second chance on the nights following the traumatic tragedy, I had never gotten a response.

After several long minutes, I had finally let all my grief out in the form of tears and felt somewhat better. I was grateful that Howard wouldn't judge me. I had realized Joey wasn't in the building.

"Where's Joey?" I questioned. He looked back at me.

"Your pig wanted to go outside early this morning, so I let him out. I hope you don't mind…" he replied.

"That's alright." I responded and headed out the door to look for him.

The village was the exact same as it was yesterday-completely devastated. There were no more fires though, and the smell of sulphur had since gone away, or maybe I had gotten so used to it that I couldn't smell it anymore. I spotted Joey sitting over by the church, or what remained of it. He was looking around at the destruction caused onto the nearby houses with a distant look in his eyes. I began to approach him.

"Hey, Joey…" I greeted once I walked by him. He looked up at me. I could still see a lingering sadness in his eyes.

"I really wish we could've helped everyone…" I muttered with bitterness, "Whoever did this deserves to die." Joey nodded in agreement with his angry face.

"Very bad things have happened, but I'm just glad we still have each other." I pointed out. Joey oinked passively in response. I heard my stomach growl hungrily.

I brought my hand back into my inventory, reaching for something to eat. My hand came out with a baked potato. I went back through my inventory and pulled out a carrot, holding it above Joey's head. He quickly noticed and began to jump for it, squealing excitedly. I smiled lightly and let him snatch it out of my hand. As he ate his carrot, I munched down on my baked potato, looking at the sun as it rose in the distance.

"There's something weird going on with this 'Herobrine' guy." I said. "He calls himself the king of mobs and seems to be very powerful." Joey snorted while he was munching. "I have a theory that he might've had something to do with this…" I suggested.

"Whatever caused this, one thing's sure. We need to find this new village." I explained.

"Steve, are you ready?" I heard Howard's voice behind us call out. Joey and I quickly scarfed down our breakfast, then headed over to him.

"Actually, I'm going to need a sword first before we go." I pointed out, recalling that I had no weapon.

"Is that all?" he asked as he went through his inventory. I nodded. He pulled out an iron sword and handed it to me.

"There you go." he said as I took the weapon. I blinked in surprise.

"You just carry an extra weapon on you?" I questioned and he nodded.

"Of course! I always carry a second sword. You never really know when the first one's going to break." he replied.

Over the many years I had been on my own, struggling to preserve my weapons, it somehow had never registered that I could just bring extra weapons with me. I could even remember some moments when my sword broke and I decided to use an axe that I had on me, and now I felt dumb that I hadn't learned from those times.

"So, now are you ready?" he asked, and I shook my head.  
"Hold on... I just had a serious idiot moment right now..." I said as I sat on a cobblestone block and felt both sides of my head with my hands. Then, once the shock and disappointment went away, I jumped up and turned to look at him. "Okay, ready."

"Good, now let's head for the next village. I have a good friend there that is the leader of his village much like I was. Together, we can unite the Council of Leaders so we can launch an investigation into these unusual skeletal leaders." he promised.

"Wait, what's the Council of Leaders?" I asked him.

"It's basically an alliance circle between the leaders of many villages. Even though the Mob Revolution destroyed countless villages, our villages have remained strong because we have vowed to protect each other's villages. And when one of our villages are struggling, the whole council pitches in to help them out. I, myself have made friends with most of them. Whoever that skeleton was, I'm going to make him pay." he declared angrily.

We soon left the crumbling remains of what was once the village. I knew we had to find this next village. We also had to find out who the skeleton that had ordered the destruction of the village was. I had my own theories, but I didn't want to tell Howard just yet in case I was wrong.

 **Herobrine's POV**

I sat in my throne from within my own impenetrable fortress in the Nether. My four skeletal servants kneeled before me, their heads bowed in a respectful manner. They were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse-the four highest generals of my armies.

"My lord, you have called for the four of us. Why is that?" questioned one of my horsemen, Skulrein, with his deep, deceptively non-skeletal voice.

"Witanos was with me, so he knows why I have summoned the rest of you. You see, today I encountered the one chosen by the Creator." I informed. "He had been brought into the Nether by Witanos, but then managed to escape." I said, giving the horseman a harsh glare. He stayed silent. The three horsemen beside Witanos looked up at me.

"What happened, my king?" Withros asked in his raspy rattle. I sneered.

"The pitiful boy cowered in fear! I must admit, I was not expecting for the human to be so submissive." I chuckled. Skellian rattled.

"My lord, you are a very intimidating being." he clattered.

"And rightly so! All humans should fear me. My power knows no bounds…" I chuckled as I willed a charge of fire to form from my hand.

"You are correct, Lord Herobrine." Skulrein agreed. I willed my eyes to flash brighter and turned to Skellian.

"Now then, Skellian, what is the status of the second one?" I questioned. He kept his head down.

"Still alive. Unfortunately, she is very cautious, and so it is near-impossible to find an opportunity to ambush her with my forces. But, good things come to those who wait, my lord." he assured. I scowled.

"I am not concerned in the least, as long as they do not possess the weapons that can harm me. But do not make me wait much longer." I ordered.

"Understood, my lord. The first opportunity I find I will take." he promised.

"Good. Now, Skulrein." I faced him. He brought his head back up to look at me straight in the eyes, but in a way that was not challenging.

"Have you found the stronghold yet?" I questioned.

"Yes, my lord. The stronghold has finally been discovered. I intended to tell you privately, but you called for this gathering, and so this was a perfect opportunity to inform you in front of the other horsemen. I can lead you there first thing tomorrow." he promised.

"Good." I imagined the vision of the mystical black dragon plowing through villages. The dragon was the final element my army required before I would finally invade the Overworldians, and it was said to lurk within the dark realm of the End. Once I had it, victory would be guaranteed.

"Very well then, Skulrein, we will head out first thing when the day rises tomorrow."

"Yes, my lord." I looked up at the ceiling, where I had a feeling he was watching.

"There is nothing that can stop me. No mob, no man can hope to stand in my way. Foolish Creator, even with the hero you have crafted to defeat me, I will not be stopped this time!" I bellowed with a triumphant laughter.

 **End of Book One**


	11. Chapter 11: She is alive

**Hey, it's me. I wanted to explain that this part wasn't originally a part of the second book, it was a demo of it. Although, none of this is in Book Two, so I think it's only right that I post it as well. Also, I wanted to let you know that last chapter when I said I'd be posting less and less frequently, I didn't mean significantly so, in case people were worried. Some days, I'll upload a chapter and some days I'll work on writing. Alright, just wanted to get that out of the way. This chapter is meant to be a confirmation that a character who was previously thought to be dead is alive after all these years, which was only hinted at last chapter. Enjoy!**

 **Alex's POV**

Before I saw the man of my nightmares, I was having a pretty good day. Mining enough iron to make two iron golems? That's typically what I call a success. I didn't find any diamonds sadly, but that didn't get me down. I was mining away at the nearby cluster of redstone ore when I heard a bubbling noise. _Lava,_ I thought with a shudder, _I better be more careful then._

When I was done, I looked at the end of the cavern. I thought I saw something flaming in the distance. No way… I thought as I headed towards it. As I neared it, I saw it was in a chamber made of cobblestone. Some of the cobblestone had moss on it. It is! I realized. It was one of those incredibly rare dungeons. Judging by the flaming cagelike block in the middle, I'd say that was the mob spawner of the dungeon. And it had a miniature model of a skeleton spinning at a mesmerizing speed inside of it. That meant it was designed to spawn skeletons. It didn't appear to have spawned any mobs yet. I quickly debated what to do with the spawner block.

I decided I would keep the spawner where it was for now. If I decided to stay, I could use the spawner for a mob grinder in the future. I quickly got out a few torches and put them all around the spawner, effectively making the spawner unable to spawn mobs in. I looked for the chests in the chamber. They sat against the wall beyond the spawner, away from the entrance. Whoever had designed these dungeons were clever, they made it so to get to the treasure, a person would have to go through the chamber where they could be easily ambushed by spawned mobs if they weren't careful like I was. I wonder what could be in these chests, I thought as I opened the first chest.

Inside the chest were six bones, four gunpowder, and three string. There was also a name tag, a saddle, and… a golden apple! I quickly swiped the yellow fruit and put it in my inventory. I left the saddle and name tag though. There was no point in bringing something I wasn't going to use. Besides, I had a whole other chest to look through and my inventory was already full of stuff I really wanted to keep.

I closed the lid and went through the second chest. Inside, there were two bones, five gunpowder, two coal, some melon seeds, and a loaf of bread. There was also a bucket and four gold ingots. Great…

I didn't plan to use the melon seeds because I was constantly on the move and didn't stay in an area very long before traveling more. I had no use for bones, and at best I could use the gunpowder as an ingredient for TNT, but I'd need a lot of sand as well. Additional food was always good, though I already had enough coal from mining. I decided to take the gunpowder, bread, bucket, and gold ingots with me and placed my flint, a nearly depleted wooden axe, and red sand in the chest to make room. I went back to the first chest and grabbed the gunpowder from it and took it with me. Overall, the dungeon loot wasn't too shabby. At least I got a golden apple from it.

Suddenly, I heard an unnerving noise echo through the cavern. It sounded like something huge-like some kind of a massive beast breathing on the other side of the cavern, or wind moving through a long, narrow tunnel. I instinctively turned around but saw nothing bad. Ambience… I thought. I really hated my imagination. It was really frightening at times. Whenever I heard it, I got the feeling I was being watched, or even followed. But there was never anyone there, not once.

Suddenly, I felt an impending sense of danger. I drew my iron sword and turned around quickly. I saw a person standing at the entrance of the dungeon, looking down at the cobblestone floor. The person looked very familiar. He wore a cyan blue shirt with dark blue pants-a color scheme that instantly stood out. Instantly, I became relieved and happy. I wasn't the last human alive! And that was when I realized why he was so familiar.

"Wait… Steven!?" I stammered to the person. He began to look up to me. "Oh… my… Notch, I can't believe it's yo-" The man stared straight at me and we locked eyes. He had pure white eyes. It wasn't Steven, there was no way! Suddenly, I understood the concept of fear. This man radiated hatred and evil. He wasn't human, he definitely couldn't be human.

"I'm sorry…" the man sneered in an ancient gravelly voice, "I believe you have me confused for someone else… My name is Herobrine."

Suddenly, the torches I placed on the spawner popped off from the ground. Instantly, the chamber went dark. But I could still see those pure white eyes dimly glowing in the darkness staring at me.

"Let's see how good you really are at fighting." Herobrine sneered as the spawner let out a burst of flame.

Suddenly, a skeleton spawned on each side of Herobrine. The mysterious person teleported to the other end of the cavern. The skeletons got their bows ready and aimed at me. My instincts told me to avoid their arrows by running around them, but there was nowhere near enough space to run around. So, that left me with one option… to charge them.

I sprinted at one and sliced away at it. The skeleton was knocked back a block, but pulled out another arrow and aimed it at me. I quickly lunged at it, taking the skeleton down to the ground, and I plunged my sword into its head, turning the skeleton into smoke.

I turned towards the second one as it shot its arrow at me. With reflexes swift like an ocelot, I sidestepped the arrow. It missed by an inch and hit the mossy wall. I jumped up and brought my sword down onto the skeleton. It fell to the ground and before it could get back up, I stabbed the iron sword into its spine. The skeleton turned into smoke as well.

I heard the spawner let out another burst and turned to face the newly spawned skeleton or skeletons. It turned out to be just one, and I heard the skeleton fire its ready arrow. I immediately felt a wave of pain shoot up my left arm to the rest of my body. I looked at it and could barely see an arrow protruding from it in the darkness. I cried out in pain and tried not to pass out from the pain. I tried to focus on the skeleton.

I saw the mob at the corner between the two chests ready another arrow. I couldn't avoid an arrow at such a close range, so in desperation, I threw my sword at it. My sword went flying straight at it.

The sword hit the skeleton right in the eye socket, pinning it to the wall. The skeleton went limp and exploded into smoke. I quickly placed several torches around the spawner-not caring where, as long as they were lit, keeping it from being able to spawn anymore skeletons in, then ran forward and retrieved my sword.

I looked back to the end of the cavern. The evil man was giving me a stare with a wicked sneer on his face. I put my sword away and pulled out my trusty bow and raised an arrow to it, aiming the weapon at the being. This was certainly not my brother, even if he looked like Steven…

"You may be able to defeat a few skeletons, but I am way out of your league. Petty girl, know my name and fear it. I am Herobrine, and I am the king of mobs! And you are just a mere human."

I noticed a growing darkness behind him. It was his shadow, and it spread across the cave behind him, turning everything from being lit by torches to dark and black. His sneer grew deeper as he lifted himself into the air, and I watched in shock and horror as shadows began to flow over him, turning him pure black, except for his pure white eyes.

He chuckled in a deeper and eviler voice as his body merged with the shadows, becoming a massive amalgamous dark face with two shining white eyes. I took an unsteady step back, and felt my back hit two sides of the wall, but tried hard not to show my fear. The creature grew a vicious sneer, and then surged at me. I covered my face defensively.

Suddenly, there was no one in front of me. The man was gone, and the cavern was quiet, as if nothing happened. All I heard was the flicker of the torches right in front of me around the spawner. I looked down at them. They were in the positions they were in when I originally placed them down instead of the positions I had put them after that man had extinguished the first ones. Did that mean…

I took a moment to think about what had just happened. First, I had found this skeleton dungeon. Then, I lit it up, making it so skeletons wouldn't be able to spawn and attack me. After that, I went through the chests, and then I encountered that being. Could that mean that the man had been… part of some kind of vision? Clearly, I was still alive, and it looked like the creature hadn't even destroyed my first torches on the spawner. I brought out my clock from my inventory. It was the evening and about to become night. The moon was just starting to appear to the right, meaning that it would be night soon.

"You know what? I'll think about it later." I decided out loud, then left the dungeon and began to retrace my steps. I might be able to make it back to my tent if I hurry, I thought. I hurried off to the end of the cavern, which I knew would lead me back to the series of caves I had spent the past few days exploring.

By the time I finally found the way back to the surface, it was long past dusk. Fortunately, my tent was right by the cave entrance. My mule, tied to the fence post right next to the tent for the night, brayed when he saw me, and I quietly shushed him as I went over to him.

"We've got quite a long day ahead of us tomorrow, Jack." I whispered to him, keeping an eye on my surroundings. Once I was certain there weren't any mobs that could see me, I went through the chest on Jack's back and put away my clock, my pickaxe, the dungeon loot I had picked up, and all the lapis and redstone I had collected underground, then took out my bed, crafting table, and furnace. "Be sure to get some rest." He brayed again, this time more quietly.

I quickly slipped inside my woolen temporary base, shutting the door behind me so no mobs could track me in here. Finally feeling safe and secure, I sighed in relief. I was going to be fine. Today had been close, but I wasn't going to die yet. Of all the ways it could've gone, I was glad it didn't end with me dying to those skeletons.

I looked through my inventory and found less than half a stack of gold ore, almost two stacks of iron ore, and exactly half a stack of coal. I headed over to the tent crawlspace and placed the furnace in it. I then stored several lumps of coal in the furnace along with a stack of my iron ore. It began to slowly smelt the iron.

I decided to make some more furnaces to smelt more ore at once. I went over to my crafting table and brought out the stack of cobblestone I had on me. I put them in place and began to stack them on each other until I had three more potential furnaces. I waited a few seconds and they shot into each other, fusing and creating furnaces one at a time.

Within moments, three new furnaces were made. I grabbed them and headed back to the first furnace. I plopped them down right beside the first and put six lumps of coal in each. Then, I split my iron ore and gold ore evenly and placed the different portions in each furnace. The furnaces ignited and the tent heated up a little bit from all the furnaces combined temperatures.

As I waited for the ore to smelt, I pondered about that weird dream I had experienced underground. I wanted to know if it was real or if I should ignore it or if I should be worried. Who was that Herobrine guy? And why did he look just like Steven? So many questions filled my thoughts, but I knew I couldn't answer them, so I suppressed them and decided to get some sleep. Placing down my bed, I laid down and covered myself in its red comfy blankets. Tomorrow, we were going to try to find a new biome.

I was half-hoping for a jungle biome because jungles are full of food sources like watermelons and lakes, along with cocoa pods that could be used to make cookies. Not to mention that animals like pigs and sheep that lived there often had trouble navigating through the brush-filled terrain, and couldn't get away if I needed them as food. But at the same time, it would take a very long time to travel through with Jack, who would have a lot of difficulty making it through the landscape much like those animals.

I had to keeping searching for him, and I couldn't stop to think about the odds. If I did, I would just go back into the same depressing mindset I had years ago. I had to find him. I wasn't going to give up like I did when I was with him. I had to find my brother, Steven Stonewall, no matter what.

I let out an exhausted yawn, and snuggled up within the covers. Then, I fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12: Another village within sight

**Narration**

 _It was the day after they had set off. Steve and Howard spanned a large distance from the ruins of the conquered village. They did not even stop to rest during the night. Regardless of how tiring it was for Steve and his grown pig, Joey, Howard had insisted that the less time they wasted, the more the villages could build defenses for the next village that would be under attack from the horseman that had destroyed his own. It had been a grueling journey, but by nightfall, Steve and Howard could see civilization beginning to pop into existence._

 **Steve's POV**

"I see it!" I panted with a burst of excitement at the sight of a new civilization.

"Really?" Howard questioned.

"Yeah, it's just over that hill!" I responded, pointing over to it. He let out a hushed cheer. Joey squealed happily upon seeing the village.

"Only a little longer…" I said.

Between us and the village was a good distance of about a hundred blocks. It was nighttime, and there were mobs trying to chase us, but fortunately we could easily outrun them. I could, however, see there were some that were between us and the village. There were even more to our sides, so it was going to be much more difficult to run around them than it was to fight them. I bit my lip in anxiety realizing that we had no choice but to take the mobs on if we were going to make it through to that village.

Two zombies ahead stumbled slowly towards me, moaning their deathly groans in anticipation. I stopped and let one of them limp closer while Howard brought his sword down onto the other and dealt critical damage to it. The zombie swiped at me, but I swung back, knocking the mob away.

I surged at it with a thrust of my sword, making it flash red a second time. The zombie rushed at me, this time slamming its arm against my sword arm. I felt immense pain spread across my body as my sword fell out of my grip. I quickly snatched the weapon back up and delivered one more slash onto the zombie. It collapsed to the ground with a final groan.

Joey suddenly squealed in alarm right next to me and I turned around to see a creeper approaching us from behind. It hissed and swelled, eager to explode onto us. I let out a startled shout and sprinted away as fast as I could, knowing I could never defeat a creeper before it exploded-not without a bow.

I slammed against a wandering cow and flew over it, landing on the other side of the animal. Quickly, I picked myself back up and noticed a skeleton right in front of me, readying an arrow. Sprinting to the left, I managed to avoid the mob's arrow just in time as it embedded itself into the cow's side. The cow let out a pained moo and began to sprint around while I ran over and swung my sword at the skeletal fiend. It stumbled back and readied a second arrow, but Joey tackled it, bringing the skeleton to the ground. I quickly brought my sword down onto the skeleton, defeating it and turning it into smoke.

"Steve!" I looked forward and found Howard further ahead, battling the mobs at a much faster pace with a sword and an axe in each hand. He was pushing through them, barely letting any single mob stop him as he cut them down with powerful swings of his weapons. Picking up the pace, I made my way to him.

A spider lunged seemingly out of nowhere and took me down to the ground. I pushed against it as hard as I could, but the monster was clenching to me tightly while it attempted to bite at me. Joey finally managed to tackle the arachnid off of me, but not before it had bit me once. I got back up and stared at the spider. It glared back at me with its intelligent eyes, waiting for me to make a move.

I let out a holler and swung my sword down towards it, but the spider jumped to the side, then pounced and kicked me with its multiple legs, sending me back onto the ground, momentarily dazed. I saw the spider crawling slowly towards me and tried to push myself away, but then it lunged on top of me, trying to bite at my face again. I groaned with the effort to push the spider off, but Howard appeared and slammed the mob off of me with his axe. The spider turned into smoke midair.

"Hurry, we're almost there." He reminded. I nodded and pushed myself off the ground, back onto my feet. We were so close to the village. I could see the local iron golems of the village. Just a few dozen more blocks.

"Steve, look out!" I heard Howard shout at me. Joey squealed as well in panic. I turned around and saw a projectile flying at my face before colliding and shattering into glass. It had been a potion, and I fell backwards onto the ground from the impact.

I began to feel nauseous and went into a coughing fit as dark green particles began floating from my body. My body started to flash red with pain as I felt something attacking my body from the inside. It could only have been a splash potion of poison. I let out a cry of pain and clutched my stomach. Joey ran by my side and stood guard, knowing what was happening to me.

"Steve, I got you!" Howard shouted as he charged at the culprit-a witch chuckling upon seeing me in my agonized state. He jumped up and slammed his axe against her, knocking the witch back. She quickly took out a healing potion to drink, but he did not allow her to finish it, defeating the witch with a quick slice of his sword. He immediately collected her drops, though I wasn't able to determine what she had dropped, and ran over to me.

Howard put away his axe and offered a hand up to me. I tried to reach up and accept it, but another surge of pain rattled throughout my body again-this surge even more painful, forcing me to lower my hand. I winced in pain. I knew with dread that I wasn't going to be able to take any more hits from anything. One hit from a zombie, one bite from a spider, and that was it…

"Howard… I'm not gonna make it…" I groaned, my eyes briefly shutting from stress.

"Steve, you're going to be fine… I'm not gonna let those mobs get any closer!" he vowed as an arrow flew by overheard, barely missing Howard. He spotted the projectile and turned to face the opposing skeleton, only to be hit with another arrow from a second skeleton.

"Ow!" he hollered out and, knowing the dire situation I was in, pulled out a shield and lowered to my level, keeping it raised against the skeletal archers that were hunting us. He looked over at Joey.

"Joey, you have to try to bring Steve to the village! Steve, if you can, go quickly while I block these skeletons' attacks!" Howard ordered. I nodded and tried to lift my body off the ground, but was unsuccessful.

Joey grunted and pushed my arm with his snout, then lowered his back. I understood what he was trying to do and lifted my arm onto his back, then tried as hard as I could to lift myself once again. Joey pushed his back up quickly and the momentum allowed me to rise off the ground high enough for me to stand on my legs. I then unfolded my legs and stood back on my feet.

"Thanks, buddy." I smiled at the pig. He oinked in response.

"Hurry!" Howard shouted as he blocked another arrow, "I don't know how long this shield is gonna last!"

I quickly pulled out cooked mutton and consumed it as fast as I could, trying to get my body to heal. Then, I slowly made my way closer to the village, using Joey to steady myself.

We had made it to the outside gravel roads when all of sudden, a dozen people wielding bows appeared from behind buildings and one-block ledges, arrows aimed directly at me. Joey squealed in shock and I stopped and dropped my sword, raising my hands up in surrender.

"Who are you?" one of the archers questioned in a deep and loud voice. "You better not be with that gang of griefers…"

"I-uh, I…" I stammered, still overcome with shock at how sudden they all had appeared.

"Wait!" Howard's voice boomed, "Wait, he's with me!" he said as he ran by my side, panting. His shield was gone. The man looked at him, then lowered his bow.

"Howard? Why aren't you at your village?" he asked.

"That was what I wanted to talk your general for." Howard responded, "Where is Will?"

"He's asleep. Turned in for the night. Why?" the man questioned.

"I need to talk to him right now." Howard repeated with annoyance.

"But-"

"Now, Javier!" he demanded.

"Okay then… Everyone, lower your weapons." Javier ordered. Immediately, all the archers lowered their bows. Javier went off into the village, along with the rest of the archers. Howard went ahead, and so Joey and I followed him.

I could see every house had a redstone torch on within them, no doubt it was late at night and everyone was asleep with their houses dimly lit to prevent mobs from spawning inside their homes. I was pretty tired myself. It had been two days since I last went to sleep, and even though that wasn't a lot, it was more than I was used to.

"Who's Will?" I asked him as we were walking side by side.

"William is the military general of this village. You see, a lot of villages work differently. In my village, I maintained watch over everything that went on, from supplies to jobs to combat training. In this village, they do things differently. There's three people that maintain different parts of the village. There's Nick, who watches over the supplies. There's Katlyn, who determines who does what job for the village. And then there's Will, who is in charge of this village's knights. He watches over combat training and makes sure that the warriors are capable of defending the village." He explained.

"Will's actually pretty cool once you get to know him. He and I don't always see eye-to-eye on certain things, but we're still good friends. The other two, however, I don't get along with as well."

Javier was approaching us, accompanied by a man who was clearly very tired as he was yawning a lot while he followed.

"I have brought him, Howard. Now, I must head off to keep watch." Javier insisted, then went off, leaving just the three of us and Joey.

"Will-"

"Howard, this had better be important, because I have a very busy day tomorrow…" Will grumbled.

"It is very, very important, Will." He replied.

"Why are you even away from your village? There isn't another meeting for-"

"Because my village was destroyed!" Howard answered in a harsh voice. Will's eyes immediately widened with shock.

"Wait, what?"

"My town had been destroyed… along with my sweet Jessie…" Howard's face darkened. I could see a tear forming from the corner of his eye.

"But how? That place was well-guarded, with a ton of iron golems and fighters. How did it-" Will stammered.

"It was a skeleton on a skeletal horse…" Howard answered. "A skeletal commander. He had an enormous army of mobs that he led into the village. It was… the whole thing was a damn slaughter!"

"That… is very alarming news…" Will muttered, very concerned.

"Yes, and I came here to bring the council back for an early meeting. This is dire-that horseman could attack any of the others' towns, and unfortunately I don't think they would be able to hold out, not without preparation, at least."

"Hmm…" Will mulled over this for a moment, then turned to face me.

"Who is this? And what's with the pig?" he asked.

"That's Steve, he pulled me out of the wreckage from after the village had been destroyed. He's the reason I survived the night. The pig's his pet." Howard explained. I thought I saw a look of recognition and shock from Will's face upon hearing my name, but after I had blinked his face was still one of concern and anxiety as he listened to Howard. Was I seeing things?

"Well, we prefer the term companion…" I clarified, noticing Joey's scowl, "but yeah."

"A pig as a companion?" Will responded, his brow raised. "I'd have chosen a wolf instead."

"Well, Joey's my best friend. I'd never replace him." I said as Joey and I looked back at each other with smiles on our faces.

"The pig… I certainly didn't expect for you to get a pig as your companion…" he commented. "I mean, there's very little they can do in terms of combat and survival. But, at any rate, how about you go ahead and get some rest. I know it's quite a distance between Howard's village and mine, so you must be tired. You can sleep in my house just for tonight." Will suggested, then pointed to a house a couple dozen blocks to his right and my left. "It's over there, the one with the walls made of brick instead of cobblestone. Just don't take any of my stuff… We'll have a couple more houses built tomorrow if you're going to stay with us, I suppose."

"But, I'd prefer to stay…" I protested.

"Steve, just go. Will and I need to do some scheduling, and it'd be easier done by ourselves." Howard explained.

"Okay then…" I turned to look down at my pig, "Come on, buddy. Let's go." We headed over to the house Will had pointed at.

"I just get the feeling that something's going to happen. You know that feeling, Joey?" I questioned once we were outside of their hearing. Joey grunted in response, which I assumed was a yes. "I really hope that nothing happens. I hope that we can get a good night's sleep, then maybe we can stay at this village…"

We made it to the house and I opened the door, allowing us to enter inside. The house was fairly large on the outside, though somehow it looked even bigger on the inside! There were several chests lined up against the wall, and it was tempting to open them up and take whatever valuables I could find, but I didn't. It was my survivalist instincts pushing me, but we weren't on our own any longer. I wasn't going to tempt myself to steal from Will, I was no thief.

I found his bed, but didn't want to use it, knowing that it belonged to someone else, so I looked around for his crafting table. When I spotted it, I went over to the wooden block and brought out the wool blocks I had gotten from killing sheep earlier today. I discovered that I only had two.

"Wait, I thought I had at least three…" I muttered and looked through my inventory once again. I couldn't find any, but I did find a good amount of string, and so I took four out and placed them onto the crafting table, arranging them into a small square formation. The string shot together and turned into a single wool block.

I took the wool block and placed it back onto the crafting table, along with the two others. Going back through my inventory, I pulled out three wooden blocks and placed them on the crafting table as well. I arranged the six blocks in order, with the wool above the wooden blocks. Within a second, all six ingredient blocks came together to form a bed.

I took up the bed and placed it down on the ground behind me, then hopped on into it, covering myself in its soft red blankets. Joey jumped up and landed on me. The weight of the full-grown pig hit me full-force right in the gut and I lost my breath and shot my head upwards.

"Joey, you know you don't sleep on the bed for a reason!" I hollered angrily. The pig stared at me with a shocked look on his face, and quickly jumped off the bed back onto the ground.

I sighed and laid back down on the pillow and thought about how much I had just lashed out at Joey. It made me feel even worse. Going back through my inventory, I pulled out some strings and a carrot. Then, I brought the strings together in my hands and turned four of them into another wool block.

I rolled over to the side of the bed Joey was laying by and placed the wool block down by his head, causing him to open his eyes upon hearing the noise. He noticed the pillow I made for him and squealed in delight when I tossed the carrot on top of the pillow, which brought a smile to my face. I then rolled onto my back.

"Sorry about shouting like that, Joey." I said. "I guess it was just the stress of the night. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, buddy."

Joey stood on his hind legs with his front feet on my bed and gave me a delighted face with the carrot in his mouth, letting me know he accepted my apology. I gave him a nice pat on the head, and once he was finished with his carrot he let out a belch and huddled up to the soft wool block.

I looked up at the ceiling and felt exhaustion take ahold of me. Within moments, I slipped into a slumber.


	13. Chapter 13: The lost sister

**Hey guys, I forgot to put down the title of the second book yesterday, in case people were wondering. The second book is called The Sword Of Heroes. Sorry about that, I was in a rush, so I just published it without any last minute looks. Fortunately, it looked fine when I checked on it later. Also, I know I've made some typing errors in the past with Alex's full first name. I want to confirm that this version of Alex has the full first name of Alexandra, not Alexandria. I'll be looking ti fix as many of them as I can find. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Alex's POV**

With an exhausted yawn, I opened my eyes and sat up in my bed. I expected to find sunlight shining into my door's notches, but instead noted that the sky looked more gloomy than usual, with many more clouds than usual. Perhaps it was going to rain soon.

I got out of bed and stretched my arms, letting out a groan while I stretched. Then, I felt my stomach growl. I was very hungry, and after that mining expedition all day yesterday, I could really go for something cooked and tasty.

I went outside from my tent to see my mule, Jack, tied to his fence post, braying loudly to the mooing cows in the distance. Then, he noticed me and brayed with excitement. I walked up to him and brought out an apple, which he brayed again for. I smiled and tossed Jack the apple, where he caught it midair in his mouth and munched down on it.

While he was still enjoying his meal, I went around to the chest on his side and looked through it, taking out a nice cooked steak. My stomach rumbled once again, and I took a bite out of the steak, savoring the delicious flavor it was full of. Then, my stomach settled down, and I went back inside the tent.

Bringing out my iron pickaxe, I mined and pocketed up my furnaces along with the ingots and leftover coal that had been stored inside them. Then, replacing my pickaxe with my stone axe, I broke my crafting table down and stored it away into my inventory. Next, I took down the two torches I used to light up my tent along with the door.

Finally, I went outside and got to work, removing all the wool blocks that made up my temporary home and tucking them into my inventory to be used for another tent later on.

It almost was as if there was never a shelter there just minutes ago. The only thing that gave it away was all the brown soil from where grass has deteriorated after being buried underneath blocks for over a day.

Once I knew we were ready, I jumped up onto the saddle on Jack and gestured him forward. My mule called out and then began to tread on ahead. Now that the cave by our shelter had been cleaned of most of its ores and resources, there was no reason to stay any longer.

It took us roughly half the day before we reached the border of the biome we were in. Stretched out beyond our plains biome was a snowy plains biome, and it looked like it also included a snowy mountain deeper into the landscape.

I shuddered, and it wasn't because we were nearing the cold zone. It was because I had remembered that much of my time since my home village was destroyed had been spent in snow-covered biomes. The last time I had been to a snow biome had been with… Steven…

We went into the snowy plains biome, and I instantly felt the air temperature drop drastically, making my skin freeze. I began to shiver, and reached into my inventory, pulling out a leather tunic I had taken from a leather-clad zombie and putting on the leather coat. It helped keep much of my body heat in, which made me feel somewhat less cold. I wondered if this was the same biome I had lived in years ago. Jack brayed and then snorted.

"Yes, I know it's very cold, Jack. But you'll be fine. We just need to cross this biome into the next, whatever that may be." I assured, looking forward. Up ahead, there appeared to be several frost-covered trees in the distance. It must've been a taiga forest. I knew it would be best not to enter that wooded area with my mount.

We soon began to travel around the forest, trailing the borderline of the two biomes. I could see many animals frolicking in the snow. And then I saw the sheep.

It burst out from the thick foliage and left the taiga forests in front of us, with several wolves hot on its feet. Their eyes were red with determination as they chased down their prey. It baaed in pain as one of them landed a hit on it, then tripped as it tried to jump over a one block ledge. Immediately, all the wolves were upon it, landing a couple more bites before the sheep disappeared into smoke, leaving behind some wool and raw mutton.

I watched as one of the wolves picked up the raw mutton in its mouth, and then the wolves began to run back into the forest. I noticed one of the wolves turn and look at me curiously, regarding me with its primal eyes, before running back into the woods with the rest of its pack. I was instantly reminded of a good friend and winced at the memory.

I felt a tear form at the corner of my eye, but forced myself to not cry. Not only was there no longer any point to weeping, but it would only cause my face to freeze even faster. We continued onward.

The sun began to set, and I felt the air become even more cold. Then, the sky began to darken, but it wasn't from the sunset. I realized that it was beginning to rain-no wait, it was beginning to snow! And then, the sky flashed as I heard thunder booming across the world. That could only mean one thing, this was going to turn into a vicious blizzard really quickly. Which meant I had to make a shelter with what little time I had left before it started to snow harder.

I considered my options. I could make a tent, but then I would have to leave Jack out in the blizzard. And I wasn't sure if he could last through one. We could turn back and go into the taiga biome. Sure, it would be very cold, but we'd at least have shelter against the pouring snow. Then, I realized that we'd also be surrounded by mobs as soon as nightfall began.

I looked to the right of us and spotted a series of caves that were uncovered from the surface. Caves were good! While we did have to worry about mobs initially, I'd only have to clear them out and light the place up, then we'd have a good makeshift base for until the storm went away. I directed Jack toward the caves.

Halfway to the tunnels, snow began to fall harder to the ground around us. I would've normally been in awe of the beautiful crystalline flakes, but I knew the severity of the situation we were in and urged my mule to go faster.

Once we were upon one of the caves, I climbed off of Jack and jumped into the cavern, grunting as I landed from the fall. Turning to look up at Jack, I called on him.

"Jack! Come on, jump down!" He appeared to be nervous, his legs visibly shaking. He didn't want to jump down, I could tell it. Jack looked to my right and let out a loud bray of alarm. I looked over.

Suddenly, the last thing I saw was a swelling green creature to my side before an explosion rocketed the entire cavern, knocking the air out of my lungs as I flew back against the wall with a grunt.

I quickly got back to my feet and crossed the new crater shortly and saw the snow was beginning to swirl around faster with the wind.

"Jack! Come down here! It's fine, you won't get hurt!" I shouted at him, trying to be heard over the steadily increasing winds. He brayed in protest, and I knew there was only one thing I could do to get him down here.

I went through my inventory and pulled out a lead. Then, I swung it over to Jack. The rope instantly connected to his neck. Jack tried to pull against the lead, but I held on even harder.

It took several long moments, but I was finally able to pull Jack down into the cavern with me. The snow swirled above with harsh eagerness, seemingly intent on freezing us, and I took out a couple dozen dirt blocks from my inventory. Quickly, I got to work, placing blocks down across the open ceiling and entrance to our side that led to even ground with the surface. The storm billowed, and I heard another strike of lightning-this time not that far from us.

As soon as I placed the final block, I brought out an unlit torch and slid it across the rough stone, instantly igniting the torch and casting us in light. I placed the torch along with a few others down around us. After that, I sighed in relief and sat down on the stone floor. My mule was standing a few blocks by me, not wanting to go down into the part of the cavern that led deeper underground. I didn't blame him. Although I couldn't hear any mobs deeper down the tunnel, I was still unnerved by the prospect of what might be down there. I now had a new fear of what dwelt in the dark, ever since I encountered that unusual man in the underground a week ago…

My paranoia won out and I placed down several more blocks to block off the rest of the tunnel. Then, beginning to feel tired, I placed more blocks in the crater we were within to make the ground more even. I went through Jack's chest and pulled out my bed, then placed it on the ground. Jack butted my arm with his head and snorted.

"Sorry, bud. We're out of apples. We're going to have to stock up in either a forest or a ravaged village, if we find one." I said. Jack gave me a sad look.

"Only one way we're going to be able to get out of here now." I sighed and jumped into the bed. "And that's if we wait out the storm. Good night, bud." I yawned and closed my eyes, slipping into subconsciousness.

 _I was in some kind of ancient temple made entirely of cobblestone. There were vines growing everywhere across the walls. There were cobblestone stairs leading to an upper floor as well as leading to a lower floor. The lower stairs led directly into darkness. The upper stairs led into not-darkness. I made my decision on which stairs to choose immediately._

 _As I was walking, the entire temple shook violently. I heard the moaning of zombies mixed with the rattles of skeletons and hissing of spiders all around me. Zombies appeared from behind me, slowly entering the temple entrance as skeletons and spiders revealed themselves at the upper floor, the skeletons readying arrows and walking down the stairs while the spiders climbed across the ceiling. I made a rash decision and immediately bolted for the stairway that led deeper into the dark part of the temple, hearing the cries of the monsters that were following in pursuit of me._

 _I nearly slammed into a wall once the stairs ended. Even though it was incredibly dark, somehow, I knew that I was now in an intersection. My vision adjusted to the darkness, and I could see that there were a few levers on the dead-end to my right, but I had no time to mess around with them right now. I ran left and went around the corner._

 _I reached another corner and turned to find something stunning-a bow hovering in the air, as if waiting for me. It was glowing purple, lighting up the surrounding area somewhat with a lavender shade._

 _The bow looked a bit different from how bows normally look. It had spots of what appeared to be gold flecked across its curve. The golden specks were even more focused at the center. I cautiously approached the bow, captivated by how different it looked from a standard bow. Then, I heard the mobs closing in on me and I snatched the item from the air._

 _Upon touching the mystical weapon, I was hit with knowledge of some kind regarding the bow itself. This was a special bow. It was created to keep the evil ones at bay and its arrows could pierce through the darkness itself._

 _I went back around the corner and could see dozens of mobs spilling into the hall in front of me. The zombies moaned hungrily while the spiders crawled across the ceiling, hissing eagerly. Skeletons held on to the arachnids, bows in hand. I raised the bow and reached into my inventory, hoping I had some arrows._

 _I pulled out one arrow and raised it to the bow. As I pulled the arrow back, some kind of energy began to flow from the bow into the arrowhead, changing it from an iron tip to a golden tip._

 _Did the bow just turn the arrow into a… spectral arrow? How was that even possible? What kind of bow was this?_

 _I fired the spectral arrow into the horde of mobs, and the arrow immediately lit up the entire hallway. As it streaked forward, it defeated every mob in the hall-even ones it didn't touch, causing their bodies to glow as they collapsed until they became vapor._

" _Whoa…" I stammered as I looked at the bow once again in a newfound admiration. I learned a bit more about exactly what it was._

 _It was called the Hope Bow when it was originally used. It was crafted by the most ancient people of Minecraftia, and was designed to hold back an ancient evil of some sort. And after almost a hundred years of sleeping, it was finally ready to play its part. But for what?_

'You are the chosen one, Alexandra…' _a loud voice resonated in my mind. I stumbled back and let go of the bow, but it continued to hover in the air like I hadn't grabbed it in the first place._

" _Wh-what!?" I stammered in stunned surprise. Did the bow just… talk?_

'You are the one destined to bring hope back to humanity during the upcoming war against the great evil…' _the voice continued. Before I could even say anything else, the entire world dimmed and vanished._


	14. Chapter 14: The Vision

**Steve's POV**

 _I dreamed I was standing before a hovering diamond sword in an underground chamber of some kind. The walls were made of stonebricks, many of them were cracked or covered in moss. Then, I realized that there were mobs all around me, more than I could count. I could only see zombies and spiders, but that didn't comfort me in any way. They all seemed to be in a frozen state._

 _Suddenly, everything unfroze. All the mobs began to surge forward. I quickly lunged for the sword and grabbed it. Seeing no escape, I let out an unusually courageous shout and swung the sword around me in a full circle._

 _The room filled with smoke, and I realized it was the lingering essence of all the defeated monsters that had attacked me._

" _Wow…" I muttered in awe as I looked at the blade's gleaming surface. It glowed with a purple aura, and looking at it somehow gave me insight into what this sword was._

 _In the distant past, it was called the Sword of Heroes. It had been crafted by mankind in the ancient past with one purpose-to hold back the darkness that had threatened to swallow Minecraftia so long ago. It was wielded by the Great Hero of Minecraftia himself when he destroyed the great evil. And after almost a hundred years of sleeping, it was finally ready to play its part._

'Steven, you are the chosen one…' _a smooth voice echoed within the very depths of my mind. I immediately gasped in shock and lost grip of the weapon, but it continued to hover._

" _First mobs, and now weapons!? What the heck is this!?" I stammered, eyes wide with disbelief._

'You and I are destined to do great things for this world…' _the sword revealed,_ 'However, before you can claim me, you must unlock the truth of your family…'

'Steven, return home, back to your childhood village. The truth will then be made clear…' _I opened my mouth to say something, but the dream vision quickly rippled into darkness._

I woke up and found myself buried by my soft but chubby pig's belly. Momentarily startled, I pushed him off my face, where he landed on my waist with a surprised oink, then sat up and shook himself awake.

"Joey… you know I hate it when you smother me like that…" I sighed with annoyance. "You aren't even supposed to be on the bed." He just looked back at me with a look that said something like 'oops.'

I could tell it was noon. I probably should go look for Howard, so I got myself out of bed.

"Joey, come on." He looked up at me curiously. "We need to check in with Howard and that Will guy." I told him. Joey nodded in understanding and we exited the house.

Outside, I could see people walking all around the village. Many of them carried tools as they headed off to whatever work they had to do. Iron golems walked across the grassy paths, though some played with village children. It was similar to how Howard's village had been, but something seemed… different. These people didn't seem to socialize nearly as much with each other. The adults barely even glanced at one another as they went to work on their own assignments. The village itself didn't seem as welcoming as Howard's had been.

I tried to look for Howard or Will, but couldn't find either. I did however spot Javier approaching a blacksmith's forgery. Quickly, I made my way over towards him, Joey right behind me.

"Hey, Javier!" I called out to him and drew his attention.

"It's you." He replied. "I never got your name…"

"It's Steve." I informed him, "Steve Stonewall. Have you seen Howard and Will today?"

"Actually, they wanted me to send you to them when you were up." He pointed out.

"Really? Where are they?" I asked. He turned and pointed to a large cobblestone building behind him.

"In the Strategic Base. It's back there, the large building, you can't miss it." He informed.

"Okay, thanks." I responded as he nodded and continued on his way to the forge.

"Let's go, Joey." I said and headed over to the building, wondering what they were planning.

After a few moments of looking around, I found what I believed to be the base. It was a large building made mostly out of cobblestone. It appeared to have two floors, at least it looked that way from the outside. The second floor expanded beyond the first, and was larger. It looked like an observation room, and had glass all across the walls, though it appeared empty. I could see oak fences were used to support the corners of the second floor from the ground.

Once we went over to the door, I immediately noticed Howard standing at a big cobblestone table, with Will and two other people I didn't recognize sitting in cobblestone chairs. I told Joey to stay quiet while we entered the building. As soon as I closed the doors, they all turned to look at me.

"Steve, it's good that you're here…" Howard said, "Maybe you can help me explain to these idiots how bad things really are!" Hearing this, I was shocked at how harsh he sounded. He was clearly really frustrated.

"Howard… you really need to be more respectful to my colleagues…" William muttered.

"Well, I don't need to be lectured on how I failed my people by her!" he growled, giving the woman an angry glare.

"Howard, that wasn't what I meant-" she said in a calm voice before Howard interrupted her again.

"Telling me that I made the wrong decisions with fortifying the village is the same as telling me that it was my fault!" he snapped, raising his voice. "And it wasn't, I took all the necessary precautions-"

"Wait!" I hollered and went over to them. "What happened?" Howard turned towards me.

"Katlyn thinks I didn't do enough to ensure the protection of the villagers!" he said angrily. "I set up a full cobblestone wall around the village and had the knights and iron golems aware and on guard for when they would infiltrate the walls."

"Howard, she's not blaming you at all." William defended. "She just thinks that it doesn't need to be top priority to arrange the meeting for the other village mayors. We just got a bit off-track."

"Will, you were not there when the walls went down. You did not get to see all the mobs that the horseman had under his control. If you had, you would know just how much danger this village is in…" Howard argued.

"Howard, we don't need to get the council involved." The third person said. "Our village is very well supplied, and should the worst-case scenario occur, we have the underground village space."

"That won't work!" Howard shouted, then turned back to me. "Steve, back me up!"

"Oh, um…" Suddenly, I didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at me now. "well…" And then I knew what to say.

"He's right. We were attacked by a skeletal commander like that one underground. He trapped me in the Nether!" The three leaders shared shocked expressions. "Not only that, I think that this horseman might have a connection to a horrible monster named Herobrine."

"Wait-what do you mean Herobrine!?" William stammered. I nodded with a bleak expression on my face. I explained to them what had happened to Joey and me while we had been in the Nether.

By the time I was finished, they all had faces of disbelief, including Howard.

"That's why we'd need to bring this council together. If Witanos has some tie to the horseman that ruined Howard's village, then perhaps they both are connected to Herobrine." I proclaimed. Katlyn's face changed to skepticism.

"Now look, just because the appearances of these two skeletons occurred very shortly after each other doesn't exactly mean they are tied together. Herobrine never existed, he was only made up for priests and librarians to get easy emeralds for selling books about the myth." At this, William shot his head in her direction.

"Are you kidding me, Katlyn!? Herobrine IS real. The stories of how violent and dangerous Herobrine was are way too realistic to the events of the past to be faked." He argued loudly. I could see a wild look in his eyes. There wasn't exactly fear in them, but more of an understanding at how serious things had just become.

"But William, how are we to even believe that Herobrine even exists? All we have is the word of this person that came from nowhere. Do you really want to bother the Council with something like that?" she questioned.

"If it's true, we're going to need all the preparations we can get." He insisted.

"And if it's not," Nick butted in, "we just wasted months' worth of materials for weapons and armor. And not to mention that the entire village would be angry."

"At least let the Council know so that they can start an investigation!" Howard yelled. "If this is truly the work of that vile creature… we MUST know at once!"

"I agree with Howard." William stated. "Mobs have only organized once in known history, and according to legend, it was Herobrine that managed to unite them."

"You guys are being ridiculous. All this is some creepy rumor. The war wasn't started by him, it was started by a split in the old kingdom that made mankind more vulnerable to itself. Herobrine is just a myth, he never existed and never will." Katlyn scorned. I stared at her.

"He's real, I saw him with my own two eyes." Joey raised two legs onto the table and squealed in agreement. She looked back at me with a sarcastic look in her eyes.

"Sure you did." She said dismissively. I was growing frustrated by her lack of comprehending the potential risk that we were in, but before I could speak Nick interrupted.

"Well, one thing's for sure." Nick stated. "Something is definitely going on with these skeletons. And I'd like to find out what it is."

"Majority rules, Katlyn." Howard said with a scowl. "The other mayors are going to be informed at once."

"Now, wait a second. I never made a decision." Nick pointed out. Howard stared at him.

"But you implied it." He said.

"That doesn't mean a thing, I never said it." William glanced back at Nick.

"Nick, you know I would never want to bother the others unless it's absolutely required." He stated. "And this is very important. If everything Howard and Steve had said is true, and Herobrine IS out there planning and attacking, then we must take immediate action." Nick took a moment to think about this.

"Well… I suppose you do have a point…" he decided.

"You two are such little kids! Herobrine is not real! He was just some monster tale conjured up by some selfish priests!" Katlyn growled.

"Kate, the decision is final. It's two to one, and so we're going to at least inform the other leaders." William ordered.

"Fine…" she said, biting her bottom lip in frustration.

"So, that's gonna conclude this discussion?" Howard questioned, a brow raised. William looked back at him.

"Yes." He answered. A faint thought came to me.

"Hold on… I need to find my village." I pointed out. I wasn't sure why, but I felt the urge to go look for my home.

"Why's that?" William questioned.

"I don't know…" I responded as I rubbed my forehead, struggling to recall. It had something to do with my dream last night, but I had no clue what I had even dreamed about. It was as if the memory had intentionally been blocked from my mind. "I just have a feeling something is there that might be helpful."

"Helpful, how?" Nick asked.

"I… don't know. But I just know that I have to go." I replied. "I can find my way, easily. I have a compass-" I muttered as I looked around within my inventory. But I couldn't find it, and looked through it a second time. "What the… my compass is gone!" I gasped as I scrounged around my inventory a third time, but to no avail.

"Well, when you first arrived at our village," Howard started, "we were concerned that you were with that griefer faction. So, the nurse removed anything that could've been used to find your way back to the griefers." He admitted. "She took your compass under my orders, out of fear that it might've led back to a griefer camp."

"Are you kidding me?" I groaned. "Where is it now?" He shrugged.

"It's probably still back at the village." Howard informed. I briefly considered looking for my village without the compass, but immediately decided against it. I really didn't keep track of what direction we were from the other village.

"Then, I'm going to need to go back to the village and find it." I decided.

"You'd need at least one other person to go with you." Nick said. "Those are the rules. No one leaves this village alone. Last time that happened, we never saw them the next morning." I looked at Howard. He sighed.

"I guess I'll go back with you then." He said.

"Okay, so when should we go?" I asked. "I think now would be a very good time, since it's still the afternoon."

"Yes, it's a really good time to head out." Howard agreed, glancing at William.

"Go on ahead. But first, be sure to stop at the local ranch. You have my permission to borrow two horses for your trip." William said with a slight smile. "I just would like to know how long your journey should take before you come back here." Howard looked at me.

"Um… at the soonest, I'd say three or four days." I guessed.

"That's good. It normally takes a week to set up a council meeting and bring everyone to one village, and we're going to need you both in order to discuss what course of action we must take." He informed.

"We'll be back by then, I can assure you of that, Will." Howard promised as we went to the door. Joey oinked by my feet, eager to leave.

"Just be on your guard. And don't get trapped at night." William hollered as we left the building.

"Where's the ran-"

"This way." Howard interrupted as he went left and headed down the path that led to a large fenced-in area with some animals in it, us following along behind him. "I've been here a lot of times. Follow me." He said, providing no explanation into his history with the village.

I noticed while we were approaching the ranch that it was much larger than I thought ranches typically were. Although my memories of living in my home town were very vague, I don't remember our local ranch being very big, only being able to hold a few animals.

I could see some of the villagers giving me strange looks. I returned some of them with an innocent grin. As much as I wanted to talk to some of them, daylight was still important, and we needed to leave before the sun started to set.

As we came by the ranch, a young child burst out from the door, wearing blue overalls and a straw hat. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and he was also barefoot. The boy was giggling to himself as he was being chased by a baby grey sheep, which baaed happily. The boy stopped once he saw he saw us coming.

"Is your father here?" Howard questioned the small child.

"Uh huh. Papa's taking care of the horses out back." The boy said in a young farmer's accent.

"Alright, thank you." He said to the boy. The child went back to running around, and the sheep proceeded to chase him again.

We entered the house and I noticed that it looked different from the houses I had seen so far. The house had been made to be very wide, but not very long. To our side, there was a counter made from stone slabs by the far wall, and lining the wall in front of us were wooden seats and a table.

"It looks kind of like a shop…" I noted.

"Well, yeah. This place is the butcher shop." Howard informed. "This is where cooked meats are produced for the villagers. A lot of farmers and butchers work closely so if there are too many animals in ranches, they're sent to the butcher to be turned into food." I could see Joey shuddering nervously by my side. He had a scared look in his eyes as he gazed around the building. I didn't blame him. I remembered one time when I had been trapped underground and was badly injured from mobs. I had never been so paranoid of danger from all angles while I was slowly making my way out of the mine. I could only imagine that Joey was experiencing a similar kind of fear.

"From the looks of things, I'm guessing the butcher had to run an errand." Howard suggested.

We went through quickly and just as I was about to follow Howard out of the house a loud voice called out.

"Hey there, would you like for me to take care of this pig?" the loud and gruff voice questioned behind me. I turned back and saw a man in a stained apron grabbing ahold of the back of Joey's neck with one hand. He held an iron axe with the other hand. "A big one like this would yield one or two good and juicy porkchops for sure." He noted. Joey kicked and squealed with terror to get out of the butcher's grip.

"NO!" I hollered, stopping in front of him with my fists raised. "That's my pig, don't hurt him!"

"Alright, alright. Settle down, kid." The butcher reasoned, letting go of my pig. Joey sprinted over behind my feet and stayed there, peeking out to watch the butcher fearfully.

"Thank you." I said with a sigh of relief.

"There's no need to threaten me, kid. I'm just trying to make a living here." He grunted. Howard poked his head back into the shop.

"Steve, you coming-oh…" he said as he noticed the butcher with the axe in his hand and put two-and-two together.

"Yeah, we're fine." I assured, and we went out, leaving the butcher shop.

Outside the shop, I could see the large ranch, which spanned several dozen blocks and was all surrounded by fences. There were all kinds of animals on the field, from sheep eating the grass, horses running after each other, and cows just frolicking, to name a few. There was also a small lake with some sugarcane around it, and some chickens were in it, flapping their wings repeatedly as they tried to swim out.

In the middle of the field, a man was knelt down, patting a baby pig on its back. Howard was already talking with him. I could tell Joey wanted to join in on a nearby gathering of pigs and looked at him.

"Go on, Joey. Just be ready when we leave." I told him. Joey gave me an oink and a happy look as he made his way to the rest of the pigs, which were watching curiously as the newcomer came over to them. I then went to the two.

"-so would you be willing to let us borrow a couple of your horses?" Howard request. "We'll be back with them in less than a week."

"Eh, sure. An' you can keep 'em. Better then sendin' em' to my brother to be turned to leather." The farmer said, gesturing to the butcher shop.

"Even better. Thank you." Howard said. Then, he turned to me. "Well, let's pick out the horses." He then went to a group of three horses to check them out.

I looked around the ranch to see every horse. There were about seven in total, not including the baby ones. Only one of them was actually staring at me, which caught my attention. It was a light brown stallion the color of oak wood, with a slightly darker mane. There were white splotches across parts of its body as well, as if someone had made a mess with bone meal dye, though it looked natural. The horse was beautiful, and I knew I wanted it immediately.

"That one!" I exclaimed, pointing over at it.

"Kiddo, I'm not sure you wanna tame that one." The farmer said to me. I turned to face him.

"Why not?" I asked.

"'Cause that's one of my most stubborn ones, that's why." He explained. "She's given me so many hard times trying to move her around. A kid like you ain't gonna make her do squat." I wondered to myself why so many people insisted on calling me a kid. I was clearly an adult, and it was starting to really annoy me. But I knew that I really wanted that horse, no matter what.

"What if I can tame her? Can I keep the horse?" I asked.

"Of course. Good luck though, I'd hate to see ya get trampled." He said as he gave me a saddle. I grabbed it and went over to the horse, which was eyeing me down while she towered over me.

"Uhh… hey." I said gently to the horse. She continued to stare me down. "You want to join me on a journey?" I asked the horse. No response, which was definitely better than the horse somehow being able to talk, considering that I learned skeletons were able to talk less than a week ago.

I figured I should just go for it and jumped up onto the horse's back. She immediately bucked and kicked, whinnying in protest. I held on, and spoke gently to her, or as gently as I could manage while violently being shaken up and down over and over. Then, I got thrown off and landed on the ground with a grunt as the horse jogged away from me. I heard the farmer chuckle to himself. I scowled and followed the horse, only for her to see me and move further away.

This time, I stayed behind the horse, so she couldn't see me very easily and crept up slowly, moving around in the thick grass as much as I could.

Once I was close enough, I lunged back onto the horse, causing her to go instantly back to rampaging. I managed to stay on her for what felt like a long time before she bucked me off again. I landed on the ground again with a groan. When I got back up, I could see Howard was going through the same thing, his own horse thrashing around while he tried to tame it.

"If you two are gonna tame horses," the farmer hollered, "ya gotta give 'em something. Otherwise, they're gonna fight ya tooth 'n limb before they'll accept ya." Hearing him say that, I went through my inventory, trying to find something that might help. Unfortunately, all I had were a couple dozen raw steaks and an apple, a sword, an axe, my pickaxe, some torches, and several dirt and cobblestone blocks. Then, I looked around the ranch and found the lake with sugarcane around it. I knew horses really liked sugar, so I decided to try my luck with it.

I hurried over to the sugarcane and picked off several stalks when I got there, then turned them into five sugar. Howard came over to get some sugarcane as I went back over to the horse, showing it the sugar in my hands. The horse was staring at me with daring eyes, but didn't move away as I came over to her.

"That's it. Easy girl…" I said in a calm voice as I gave her one sugar to eat while I climbed onto the horse's back. She grunted, but didn't buck at all, and I slowly equipped the saddle onto the horse.

I heard the farmer give an impressed whistle as he walked up to us.

"I mean, I still expected it to take longer than that." He complimented. "Young man, ya chose a horse that I couldn't even control. How you managed to, I dunno. She only accepts food from people she deems worthy of her attention."

"If you were certain I couldn't tame her, why'd you give me that suggestion to get sugar?" I asked him, a scowl on my face.

"I wanted to see you fail a few more times." He said with a grin.

"Well," Howard said as he rode over to us on his new horse, "what do you think?" I checked out his horse. It was a black stallion with a mane that blended in with the rest of its body. On its head was a white spot.

"Nice horse." I praised with a smile. He nodded, his face beaming with pride.

"Thanks, yours looks great too." He commented. I looked at my new horse, who gazed back at me. I noticed not a look of loyalty in her eye, but merely one of tolerance. I knew right away that even though I had tamed the horse, she wasn't completely sold on the matter. I could tell there were going to be some problems in the future.

Howard looked up at the sun, which was beginning to head westward. "Well, we should probably be heading out now." I nodded in agreement.

"But first," I looked over towards the pig herd, trying to figure out which one was Joey, "Joey!" He walked away from the group, giving each pig a parting glance before walking up to us.

"Joey, meet our newest companion." I proclaimed happily. My pig went to the front of the horse and squealed with a warm smile, but the horse just snorted dismissively and looked forward, which seemed to take Joey by surprise.

I lowered my arm down for him to put his hoof on and with a grunt lifted him up onto our horse. Joey snorted a somewhat saddened snort.

"It's okay, Joey, she'll just have to get used to us." I told him, trying to cheer him up. He gave me an upbeat grin. I looked over at Howard, who had been watching the whole thing.

"Well, shall we get going?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yes, let's go…"

"That way." Howard pointed over to the west. "It's where we came from."

"Err… right!" I said, pointing west. "Onwards!" I commanded the horse, but she didn't move. "Um… Onwards, that way!" I said, trying to steer the horse, but she refused to budge.

"Um, Steve, your horse doesn't seem to be listening to you…" Howard said.

"I know…" I sighed and jumped off, then tried to push her to face west, but she let out a whinny of protest, standing on her hind legs and knocking Joey off her back.

"Hey! Come on!" I hollered. The farmer hurried over to calm the horse down.

"Hey there, settle down! You're agitatin' the other horses!" he shouted, pulling out an apple and giving it to her. The horse stopped her protest as she ate the apple, enjoying its taste with a shudder of energy. He looked back at me.

"Seems to me like ya need to keep her satisfied so she don't go kickin' an' hollerin'." He noted, reaching into his inventory and pulling out some more apples. "Here, keep 'em. She likes sugar, but they make her more energetic and easily set off. But if she's up to it, she'll also move faster when you give her some sugar. Apples will calm her down." I accepted the apples and nodded in understanding. I now had ten apples.

"Okay, thank you." I said as I stuffed the food into my inventory.

"One last thing, it may take a while before she gets used to you. That horse respects people that demonstrate leadership. That's why she loves William and is friendly with Howard. Until ya become like that, she'll keep pushing ya."

"Okay…" I said, mentally groaning. I had no idea how I was ever going to be like that. It was just a week ago when Joey and I had been on our own, trying to survive in the Overworld, completely unaware of how much civilization really existed.

"We need to head out now." Howard informed, pointing at the sun, which was now descending closer to the horizon.

"Right." I said. Joey hurried into my arms and I lifted him onto the horse's back. I jumped on and directed my horse. She listened this time and turned to face the right way.

"Let's go!" Howard commanded, and our horses sprinted towards the fence gate, then managed to jump over it, taking us past the building where we had had the meeting this morning and then beyond the village border. I heard the farmer shout farewell as we were moving.

We were heading back to Howard's village, and hopefully we would make it there tomorrow with these fast horses.


	15. Chapter 15: The Horsemens' conquest

**Skellian's POV**

We marched through the forest as the blazing sun burned. It stung a little, but us horsemen had been created to be immune to the burning rays of the light. Fortunately, it would be night soon, and then we would be welcomed by all the inhabitants of the night that would either join us or be reduced to smoke. Unfortunately, in the meantime, we had to keep all the skeletons and zombies within our ranks equipped with chainmail, gold, and leather helmets so they wouldn't catch fire in the sunlight. Even more unfortunate was that many of the zombies had already succumbed to the sun due to their low intelligence and inability to speak and request more helmets when theirs broke.

"How much farther is the stronghold?" Witanos clattered with impatience.

"It is a few more days." I reminded him. A moment passed us by as we did not say a word. I could not hear a single pig or sheep, or any other animal in this forest. Only the sounds of our troops marching behind us was audible.

"I did not expect for us to be making this little progress. Our vanguard has been very… unorganized thus far." I admitted.

"You were supposed to make sure we made it to the stronghold today." Witanos rattled, frustrated. "It appears that we will fail to meet that deadline."

"I will punish the skeleton I put in charge of organizing the forces." I clattered, looking back at our forces in search for him, but the skeleton wasn't in sight. The only skeleton of high rank I could see was Skelross, my second-in-command. Suddenly, Witanos stopped his steed.

"Stop advancing, there is something here." He revealed. I immediately slowed my own steed.

"HALT!" I ordered all the troops behind us, and every mob went quiet. We were all listening for noises. And then I heard it-the sound of scuttling feet.

Three spiders appeared in front of us, clicking and hissing.

' _Huuumansss…'_ the lead spider hissed to us in its native language. _'Huuuman village beyond the woodsss…'_

"And where is this village?" I questioned the spider. It hissed and pointed deeper into the woods with one of its legs. Witanos and I glanced at each other.

"If there truly is a village that stands in our way, then we must see to it that it is destroyed." I rattled. He nodded in agreement.

"It would be best to attack at night." He pointed out.

"Yes, and while it is day, let us search for the village and formulate a plan." I said. Witanos nodded again and turned back to our vanguard, reciting our plans to all of them.

We were to split apart. I would take half of our forces, while Witanos gained the other half. Once we found the village, we would let the other know before attacking.

I was moving ahead from the troops. Moving together would allow any nearby humans to be alerted to the sounds of the mobs, so I kept a distance, but stayed in their eyesight. My horse was now by my side, having a break from carrying me. I had very little care for these troops, as Kor was all that truly mattered to me, aside from fulfilling my lord's wishes.

All of a sudden, I heard the shriek of a pig from several blocks to the right. Quickly and soundlessly, I hid behind the tree that was right beside me, giving my second-in-command the signal to stop and silence everyone, to which he quickly did. I silently ordered Kor into a nearby surface cave. I listened for any other sounds. After a moment, I began to hear the panting of a wolf, along with the footsteps of a bipedal creature. Wolves… there wasn't much the four of us horsemen were afraid of, but wolves were among the only exceptions to that.

"Alright, that makes twenty porkchops." Said the voice of a human, male, by the sound of it. He appeared oblivious to the many mobs, which must've meant that there were too many trees between them. That was good. "Great work, Buddy." His wolf companion barked happily. "Now then, let's head on back." The wolf then began to growl.

"Buddy, you sense a skeleton nearby? Go get 'em! We could use some more arrows." He said. Hearing this, I silently drew my sword, listening for the wolf to approach.

Suddenly, I felt the furry monster bite down onto my leg. I let out a rattle of pain. The little beast had been surprisingly quiet with its movements. It snarled as it pulled back, trying to damage me further, but I brought down my diamond blade onto the vicious canine. It cried out in pain, but held on, and I went for the finishing blow, slamming the sword down at it again. The wolf let out a final whimper of pain before vanishing into smoke.

"BUDDY!" the man cried. I could hear the anger in his voice. "How dare you, foul creature, I'll kill you!" I felt a slight grin form across my bony face and stepped out from behind the tree to face him. The man appeared to be a hunter for the village. He wore full leather armor and held a bow in one hand, an axe in the other.

The anger in his face disappeared once he saw how tall I was compared to himself. Then, fear appear in its absence.

"What… the… Notch…" he stammered as he took a step back.

"How about we play a game?" I clattered. "You have ten seconds to run…" He stayed there, frozen in fear.

"Ten…" He still stayed, his feet stuck to the ground.

"Nine…" The human finally snapped out of it and turned and ran, kicking up particles of dirt as he sprinted.

"Eight… Seven…" He was crying out in fear as he fled.

"Six… Five…" The human ran past several trees, and I began to lose sight of him.

"Of course, I don't always play fair…" I grinned and called Kor to me, then mounted my steed, then ordered him after the human.

Within seconds, we were approaching the human. I lowered my sword to the side of the horse as we caught up to him. My weapon hit him in the back and knocked him forward onto the ground with a flash of red. I then stopped the horse and dismounted, and headed towards him. As expected, his weak leather armor did not do much to protect him, and he groaned with pain as he got to his feet. His eyes were filled with fear.

The human put away his axe and raised an arrow to his bow, aiming it at me. He fired the arrow, but I easily deflected the projectile with the flat of my sword.

"So weak, so pitiful…" I clattered tauntingly as I approached. He shot a second arrow, but I stopped it in its tracks with my hand and held it. Then, with a swift movement, I went down and embedded the sharp projectile into his leg. He cried out with pain, clutching the leg wound. The human stepped back, but misstepped and fell onto his back. The man, now brought down to the ground and helpless, began to plead for mercy.

"Please, don't do this…" he begged, tears beginning to stream down his face.

"You really thought you could fight off one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse? It's hopeless." I rattled as I towered over him, blade in my hand. I considered impaling him with my sword, but decided that would be too brutal for me. Only Witanos would do something so barbaric to a beaten creature. Instead, I grabbed him by the chest and lifted him up into the air, staring into his life-filled eyes. And then, I threw him against the tree with enough force to end him, transforming his body into smoke that vanished into the air. The ground was now covered in what was his inventory, though I took nothing. Instead, I made my way back to our troops, with Kor close behind.

Before we made it back, I saw an arrow flying through the air in the distance. Then, a second followed. A third then came after that. Witanos had found the village. Three arrows were the signal of that. And so, I mounted my steed and pointed my diamond weapon in the direction of the arrows.

"We go there, now!" I ordered Skelross. He nodded in understanding and announced the order for all to hear. Then, we made our way.

It wasn't long before we rendezvoused with Witanos and his troops.

We were to wait until the moon had risen from the horizon. Witanos and I had taken the two halves of our mob forces and surrounded the village. Our troops were well-hidden within the forest that surrounded the town, with the two of us standing at the front of our respective groups.

This village had been built in a terrible place. The land rose up all around the town in nearly every angle, forming a massive crater. Yes, it would've made mob attacks less frequent and therefore not have required their mayor to have to pay a woodworker to surround the village with fences, but if there was an organized attack, such as the one we were about to bring upon them with enemies pouring in from all sides, they would not stand a chance.

I watched as the last of the local villagers entered their wood and cobblestone sanctuaries, getting ready to go to sleep. The night guards patrolled the streets, on watch for any mob that tried to enter their humble village. Alongside them were the local iron golems, their metallic footsteps loud enough for me to hear even from where I was located.

I noticed several zombies from both my side and Witanos's charging into the village, disobeying our orders to stay together. That didn't surprise me much. Zombies were idiots. They often ignored orders, and it almost always led to their deaths. No amount of punishment or reward would change their ways.

The zombies couldn't even make it to any of the houses before the local knights spotted them and alerted nearby golems to their positions. They were pulverized almost instantly. Then, the moon finally came out as the sun disappeared.

I looked over at Witanos on the wall on the opposite side of the town. Bringing out a torch, I ignited it and held it up, away from the edge so the knights wouldn't be able to see its light. He raised his own torch in return. Then at once, we commanded our troops: "MOBS, ATTACK!"

Instantly, waves of mobs poured down over the cliffs, flooding down into the village. Creepers were followed by zombies and skeletons, which were then followed by spiders and the occasional spider jockey. Many mobs took damage from falling down the steep cliffs, but there were too many of them for this factor to play too much into our raid.

The humans began to notice our mobs once we had made the order, and had raised their bows in response, but I knew they were quivering in their iron armor with fear. As soon as mobs began to enter the village, some of the knights retreated towards the church, no doubt intending to climb to the top to use it as an archery tower, while others stayed and switched their bows for iron swords.

I readied my steed and descended, taking a slightly safer route down the walls to avoid taking unnecessary damage. Then, I raised my diamond blade and charged my horse into the town under siege.

I rode over to the nearest iron golem, ready to demonstrate my power. The iron golem threw a zombie far back, and then turned to face me. As much as I wanted to dismount and face it head-on, I made sure to keep my pride in check. I rode by the golem and struck it with my diamond blade, the blade rebounding as it flashed red as if I had struck an iron block(to which I technically had done).

The iron golem swung its heavy fists at my skeletal horse, but Kor quickly jumped away from the attack. My horse rushed back at the iron automaton and I struck it again. The golem grabbed a nearby zombie and attempted to slam it against me, but we narrowly avoided it. I turned my horse back around and galloped straight towards the iron golem. Then, I had Kor jump over the golem. I dismounted and dealt a final strike from above onto the golem. It collapsed to the ground and burst into smoke, leaving a couple ingots of iron and a poppy behind. I remounted Kor and we continued further into the village.

Whenever we passed a knight, I slashed my diamond blade against them, which would either knock them down or turn them into smoke. The knights and golems fell one by one to our forces. Screams of pain and terror rang out throughout the town as creepers blew up against the walls of houses, blasting them open for mobs to infiltrate and attack the occupants.

I spotted Witanos in the distance, taking on two iron golems at once. Typical arrogant Witanos. He appeared to be having difficulty keeping them at bay, so I immediately guided my skeletal steed straight for them.

Once we were close enough, I had Kor lunge into the air and take down one of the golems, our combined weight enough to tackle the automaton down to the ground. I dealt a slash down onto the fallen golem and quickly moved my horse off it before the golem could grab Kor. The iron golem rose back to its feet and turned to face me. It brought its shoulder forward, and charged at us with fast speed, the ground shuddering with each metallic step. My horse let out a low-pitched whinny and jumped to the side just in time.

As the golem sped past, I grabbed onto its arm, letting it take me off my steed. The golem stopped its charge and attempted to maintain a grip on me, but I swiftly wrapped my thin arms around the front of its neck and kicked upwards, using the momentum to send my body over the golem's torso. Once I was above the automaton, I let my body fall in front of it and slammed both my feet against the golem in the chest with such force that it was knocked back to the ground once again. I then swung my blade down at its head, which rebounded with a clang as the golem flashed red. I raised my blade once more and brought it down onto the automaton, causing it to let loose a final groan as it vaporized into smoke.

Looking over at Witanos, I could see that he had dealt with the second golem, as there were ingots of iron by his horse's hooves. I knew he was good in combat, but I was certain I would have been able to defeat my golem before him.

I heard my horse let out a pained grunt. He then stood up on his hind legs. I felt an arrow strike against my body from above and flashed red, though, as a horseman of the apocalypse, I was immune to the feeling of pain. Looking up, I saw the rest of the knights standing on top of the village church, firing arrows at our mobs and at me. I shouted over to Witanos, drawing his attention, and pointed up at the archers.

"SKELETONS, FIRE AT THE ARCHERS ON THE CHURCH!" Witanos roared over all the combat. Most of the skeletons immediately fled from the fight to safer positions and raised their bows at the church tower, nocking their arrows in unison.

As soon as the archers saw all the bows aimed straight at them, they all began to scramble in a panic to climb back down into the church.

Then, each skeleton fired at once, the arrows rising up into the heavens magnificently, and then falling down upon the fearful knights. Some of them were knocked off the church, where they fell to the ground and vanished into smoke, though some of them vaporized before they could even make it to the ground. I could see faint wisps of smoke moving away from the top of the church as well. The archers now dealt with, I turned to look around the decimated town.

There was no longer anymore fighting, as all the knights, golems, and most of the townsfolk were dead. I could see a few of the remaining villagers in the distance, fleeing from the devastation. Not that that mattered, they would fall victim to the night regardless.

I guided my horse to move next to Witanos's. Our horses regarded each other in a familiar and friendly manner.

"That was an excellent raid." I commented. He looked back at me and nodded in agreement.

"They had never stood a chance." He replied.

I noticed two skeletons pushing a struggling man over to us. He wore a light brown uniform and a dark hat.

"We found this man hiding under the ground." The first skeleton clattered in its native tongue. "We had creepers blast through what had appeared to be a hastily blocked-up area. We suspect he may be the leader of this village as he had several warriors guarding his chamber."

"Excellent work, skeletons." Witanos praised. I dismounted from my horse and went over to the man, taking him from the two.

"Why are you doing this to us!? We've never done anything to justify all this!" the man stammered.

"You are humans. Humanity is the scourge of the world that we will soon own." I declared to him.

"Your ancestors betrayed our lord. Used him and then had him executed because they felt he was a threat." Witanos agreed, glaring at the human balefully.

"Lord Herobrine will conquer all. He has predicted that all of mankind will meet its end in less than one month." I clattered. It was at this point that the mayor seemed to realize that he was not going to live past tonight no matter what happened, as he became aggressive with his words.

"You won't win! I'm in the Council of Leaders. We have a meeting in less than a week and when I don't show up, they're going to know the truth!" he shouted angrily. "You can't stop all of us! We're going to end you!"

"What good is your petty alliance going to do with the enderdragon razing all your towns?" Witanos smirked. He instantly went stiff.

"No… no, you can't-"

"It is already too late." Witanos interrupted. "Our lord is in the End. Your town just so happened to be between us and the stronghold. Once we dispose of you, we will continue on our way to that very stronghold."

"You won't win!" the human repeated. "You will burn in the Nether!" Witanos rattled with laughter at hearing this remark.

"Petty human, I was created in the Nether." He sneered. I looked for the moon. It was just past midnight.

"We have wasted enough time." I clattered, then grabbed the human leader's chest with both hands and lifted him.

"State your final words…" I offered him out of pity.

"Th-the New Hero will defeat you, you evil monsters…" he spat, "If the legends are true, you can't win! It happened like this in the past… He will come and save us all!" I scowled and, while still holding him up, drove my blade into his lower torso. He cried out in pain and flashed bright red, then went limp and turned into smoke. His inventory's contents scattered across the ground.

I turned to look at Witanos. We both nodded in understanding.

"We move on. Lord Herobrine is counting on us to deliver." I clattered.


	16. Chapter 16: A happy reunion

**Steve's POV**

"I see the village." I told Howard. He seemed to become more depressed upon hearing my words. I could tell that part of him never wanted to come back here, and after what had happened, I didn't blame him. I hadn't realized how insensitive I was yesterday when I requested for him to come with me. When I had realized it, we had already been in a shelter overnight. As we neared the ruins, Howard spoke up.

"You know, Steve, it's really quite ironic how things turned out…" he said quietly. "I mean, back when the village was alive, I was sure that you were tied with that petty faction. Well, you weren't, but the village still was destroyed…"

"I thought you told me you didn't think I was with the griefers…" I recalled.

"I told you that so you wouldn't think I was onto you." He admitted. "That's how you trick people into opening up to you, by making think that you're on their side." A moment had passed in silence before he realized the way he said that.

"I mean, I'm not still like that. We're officially on the same side." He promised.

"Yeah… I know…" I muttered as I took in the amount of damage the village had sustained.

It was as if TNT had rained from the sky directly over the village. Houses were filled with holes. I could see how Howard had walls set up around the place, but most of them were destroyed. And this time, I even noticed pillars that popped up from the ground made from dirt, cobblestone, wood, stairs, fences, and many other kinds of blocks, which made me suspect that people must have been so desperate that they collected blocks from the surrounding areas and tried to build upward as fast as they could to get away from the chaos that had unfolded. But none of the pillars had been very tall, which would mean either skeletons had shot them off or spiders-I decided to stop thinking about it before I got too depressed. This entire place was too dark for me to stay.

"Let's just get my stuff and leave." I muttered. Howard nodded in agreement.

"Agreed."

We arrived at the crumbling remains of the town. I couldn't even tell which one I had been treated in when I first arrived. But Howard seemed to know exactly where my stuff was, as he pointed to a small hut.

"Your stuff should still be in that house. There's a chest in there. Just go through it." He said glumly. I nodded in understanding and tried to steer my horse, but she refused. I mentally shouted. All day yesterday and throughout this morning she had been so disobedient, even Howard was getting annoyed from it. I gave in and jumped off her, leaving my sleeping pig on her back and walking the distance.

I went inside the hut without having to open a door, since it had probably been broken by zombies when the village went down. Inside was a chest, just like Howard had said. I opened up the chest and looked inside for my belongings. But the chest was completely empty.

"Um… what?" I murmured to myself, confused. I looked around the chest, trying to see if maybe they had been scattered across the ground, but there was nothing. "What the heck?" And then I heard shouting outside.

I drew my sword and ran out of the hut. Howard was staring at something I couldn't see.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" he bellowed as he brought out a bow and turned his horse around. Joey was awoken by his shouting and immediately jumped off our horse, seeing me and sprinting towards me.

"Howard, what's happening-"

"I SAW YOU! DON'T TRY TO HIDE FROM ME!" he boomed, nocking an arrow. And then I saw a person emerge from a ruined house.

"I don't want any trouble!" they shouted back in a female voice. I realized she had a nocked bow aimed directly at Howard.

"Wait, Howard, that could be a survivor!" I pointed out, but he shook his head, keeping his eyes on the woman.

"It's no one I recognize, Steve." He replied sternly.

"But we don't have to be aggressive!" I argued.

"Steve, I've encountered lone people before. You think they want to stay with you and help you, but the moment your back is turned, many of them will put a sword in it." He warned. "And she could be with the griefers…"

I tried to get a clear look at the woman. She appeared to have a light-green shirt, because it was hard to see in contrast to the grass around her. I could also see what might've been brown pants, though it was also difficult to see because they blended in with the dirt. I also noticed she seemed to have orange hair. And then, I locked up.

"Wait a second…" I told him. I began to walk forward. Joey didn't follow me.

"Steve, I told you, she's dangerous." Howard said as I passed him.

"I just need to see…" I trailed off, in a daze as memories began to flash before my eyes. There was no way it could be her… I remembered when I had been too weak to save her from that enderman. I was certain she had been killed… but was it possible that she had somehow survived? The woman aimed her bow at me.

"Hey! Don't come any closer!" she hollered. I stopped and held my hands up.

"That's what I'm saying!" Howard shouted angrily in response.

"Is… is that you… Alex?" I called out to the woman. She lowered her bow slightly.

"No… no, it can't be…" she said quietly, "Steven?" My heart skipped a beat. I was completely overtaken by shock and had no idea how to react.

"Alex!" I shouted. She lowered her bow completely and ran to me. I did the same.

We met in an embrace as our arms wrapped around each other. It really was her! I couldn't even comprehend how shocked and how happy I was to see her. All these years, I had blamed myself for her death, but to find out that she was alive had been beyond anything I thought would ever happen.

"Alex… I thought you were dead…" I muttered as tears began to trickle down my face.

"Steven… I didn't think I'd ever see you again…" she replied, tears trickling down her own. I heard a squeal from somewhere behind us. We let go and I turned to see Joey charging full speed towards Alex. She saw him and braced herself, but was still taken down to the ground by him as he rubbed her face. Alex laughed joyfully.

"Wow, you've become a lot bigger and heavier since we were together!" she chuckled. Joey looked at her with a look of pure excitement. "I'm surprised you still remember me, Joey." She added on.

"He never forgot about you, Alex." I assured her, beaming happily. Howard rode up to us, his bow not put away, but at his side.

"I'm very confused at what is happening here." He said, his voice still filled with caution.

"Alex is my sister!" I told him. His expression changed from confusion to shock.

"Wait-so she's your sister? The one you thought was dead?" he stammered.

"Yeah!" I clarified.

"Well, I'll be…" he muttered to himself. "Erm… sorry about that whole thing back there…" he said to my sister as he put his weapon away with a weak grin. She got back up and brushed herself off.

"It's fine…" she sighed with annoyance. A moment of awkward silence went by. Howard looked over at the sun.

"Well, it's starting to get late. We should probably go somewhere and make a shelter." He pointed out. I looked over at the sun, which was beginning to set.

How had time passed so quickly? It felt like morning had only been a short while ago. I supposed that the excitement of being reunited with my sister must've made it seem a lot shorter.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." I agreed. I realized that we had two horses, which meant one of us would need to share with Alex. I could tell that she and Howard didn't seem to be on the best terms at the moment, so I decided it would be better if Joey went with Howard while she and I shared my horse.

"So, I guess we can both ride on my horse." I said to Alex.

"Actually, I've got my own ride." She revealed. Then, in a loud voice she hollered: "Jack!"

I noticed a mule with a saddle equipped appear from behind one of the buildings. The mule trudged over to her and nuzzled her hand. She smiled and brought out an apple for the mule to munch on. He brayed in content.

Having seen my sister feeding her mule, my own horse came over, suddenly interested in the newcomer.

"Oh, when I feed you apples, you still hate me, but when my sister is feeding her mule one, you're suddenly very friendly!" I whined in protest. Alex chuckled and Howard cracked a grin, but I was still annoyed.

I brought out one of my own apples and gave it to the horse, who consumed it with gusto, though the look in her eyes once again reminded me we still weren't friends. I realized I still hadn't given her a name yet, which was pretty alarming since Alex had a name for her mule, and Howard had given a name to his horse yesterday. I decided I was going to come up with one tonight.

Seeing the horse was now willing to cooperate, I lifted Joey onto her, and then jumped on myself.

Alex jumped up onto her mule and the three of us left the village.

 _Later that night…_

I sat back in our large dirt hut, leaning against the wall. It was fairly big for three people and a pig, but if we had chosen to bring our horses and mule in, it would've been way too small. I had heard thunder overhead, but wasn't hearing any rain, which was rare.

We had taken this moment of freedom to eat until we were nice and full. I didn't have any more carrots, but for some reason Alex had some anyways, so she tossed one to Joey, who grunted happily as he bit down on the delicious treat. As I ate away at a meaty steak, I asked her questions.

"Whatever happened all those years ago, Alex? Where did that enderman take you?" I questioned before taking a bite. She continued munching on her bread for a moment before answering.

"Well, it took me somewhere deep underground. I remember waking up and being surrounded by darkness, only being able to see the light from a lava pool nearby." She responded, thinking back on the memory. "I don't remember what happened to the enderman, but I managed to get out of the cave and to the surface before I got into too much trouble."

"But what about your wolf, Chief?" I remembered. Her posture immediately stiffened as if recalling a bad memory, which gave me enough of an answer. "Oh… Look, I'm sorry." I quickly apologized. I was saddened when I realized the reality.

"No, no… it's alright." She assured solemnly, "Well, I guess all I can say is that he saved my life… many times…"

"I used to have a wolf." Howard spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was with us. "Max, he was a good companion. Very loyal to the end…" Silence followed for a moment before he spoke up again. "He saved me by pushing me away from a creeper while I was trapped outside the village. I was just a stupid child back then, trying to be more independent."

"It's an evil world…" Alex muttered to herself. Silence followed once again for a few moments before she continued.

"So, what's his backstory?" she asked me, pointing to Howard.

"Well, that village we were in was originally his." I responded. "He was the leader of the town, but just a few days ago it fell in a raid."

"Wait, your village survived all this time?" she questioned him. Howard nodded.

"That night when many villages were destroyed ten or so years ago, we call that the Mob Revolution. Tons of towns were ruined, but there were many towns that pulled through as well. That village was one of them, back when my own dad ran it." He explained.

"But that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, we spent years looking across the world for villages and we could only find the remains of devastated ones." Alex scowled. Howard nodded in understanding.

"I don't know how many towns there were prior to the Mob Revolution, but I'd say at least eighty percent of them didn't make it through that night."

"So, why'd you come back then? There wasn't even much to scavenge anyways." She said.

"Well, we needed to get my compass and arm-" I said. That was when I remembered. We shouldn't have left the village ruins, we needed to have stayed behind and look for my stuff. "Crap! We forgot to get those things!" I stammered, facepalming myself in disappointment. Howard gave me a look of shock.

"Wait, you said you needed a compass and, armor you meant, right?" Alex repeated. I looked back to her and nodded. "Well, guess you lucked out. I found both of those things when I had been scavenging." She said as she reached into her inventory and pulled out a compass in one hand, and an iron chestplate in her other. "I intended to put on the chestplate when I was going to leave, but you two surprised me." She admitted. I took the items from her and gave her a proud smile.

"Thank you." I told her. She nodded and returned my smile. It was as if we hadn't been separated for five years. We were just as close as we had ever been, having as strong of a sibling bond as ever.

Taking a long look at the compass and waiting for the needle to settle, I pointed in the direction it was facing, which was to the west.

"In the morning, we'll need to go that way." I informed.

"Let's not worry about that now though…" Alex said as she stretched and leaned back against the wall. Another moment went by.

"Elisa!" I said out loud. The two looked at me with confusion. "That's what I'm going to name her."

"Your horse?" Howard guessed, and I nodded.

"An interesting name, I suppose." Alex said, then closed her eyes. "Anyways, I'm going to get some sleep. It'd be a good idea if you did too." She suggested, mostly to me. I nodded in understanding.

"Yes, let's get some rest." I ordered, trying to sound more confident. I sat back against the dirt wall, trying to relax so sleep could come easier.

I could see Joey was unsure about who to come to: me or Alex. I assured him that I didn't mind if he went over to Alex for the night, and he nodded in understanding as he went over and snuggled up to Alex. She opened her eyes to see him right next to her and wrapped her arms around Joey, holding him in a caring embrace. The sight made me smile.

I closed my eyes and waited several moments for exhaustion to slowly be replaced with slumber. I was grateful that the mobs seemed to be very quiet tonight. That or they were staying away. I fell asleep.

 _I dreamed that I was listening to a conversation between two voices._

" _At last, the two have been reunited…" one of the voices said to the other in a quiet voice._

" _Yes, and now our hero is one step closer to realizing his destiny…" the other voice responded in a quiet voice. The two sounded like ancient beings, whose knowledge was infinite. They were the observers of our world. They had seen everything. They watched the world grow into the world of today, and they had been there since before humans even existed, though how I knew that I had no clue._

" _When the White-Eyed One rises, mankind will have no choice but to turn to its creator, the one that made it what it has become…" the first voice said. I suspected that they were talking about the Creator, Notch, certainly not me._

" _When the White-Eyed One begins his genocidal schemes, that is when the darkness will stir…"_

" _Yes, and it is up to the hero to guide humanity through the dark in its greatest time of need…"_

" _A storm is coming, Hero, and you must win in this war against evil…"_

" _Hero, you must hurry back to your home village…"_

" _Yes, time is of the essence… You must stop the White-Eyed One before he can recruit the enderdragon…" one of them informed._

" _You must keep him from freeing the beast…" the other said._

" _You have only a few days to foil his plan, make haste, Hero…" the voice said, and the dream ended._

I woke up to see that Howard was gone. Alex was still asleep, with Joey laying right beside her. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and clumsily lifted myself to my feet. Not wanting to wake the two of them up, I walked past them and over to the door.

Normally, I would've laid down for a few more moments, but I felt like I needed to rush. I wasn't sure why, but my heart was beating rapidly, as if I was charged with adrenaline. I knew I had another dream last night, I just couldn't remember much of what I had dreamed about. All I could remember was listening to two strange different voices, though what they were talking about I failed to recall.

I quickly went out the door and noticed Howard was taking care of his horse. Why was my body making me rush?

"Hey, Howard." I greeted him. He looked at me, and I could see a joyful look in his eyes-a look I hadn't seen him have before. Perhaps he enjoyed taking care of his horse?

"Good morning, Steve." He said.

"So, when are we planning on heading out again?" I asked, getting straight to the point. Typically, I would've enjoyed the early morning, but clearly there was some reason why my mind and body were both telling me to hurry and continue to travel.

"Well, I was thinking we should take it easy for today and go slow. Soren still seems tired." He said, referring to his horse.

"I wish we could, but I get the feeling that if we slow down, something bad will happen." I told him. He looked curious upon hearing this.

"Steve, come on. We need to take care of our rides." He pointed out.

"I know, I know." I mumbled, then sighed. "We can take it easy, but we've still got to get to my home village as soon as possible."

"What's going on?" Alex's voice called out to us. I turned around and saw her approach. She must've woke up right after I had. Joey was trotting over by her side, but oinked and ran over to me once he saw me. I smiled and gave the pig a nice pat on the head.

"We were just going over plans." Howard informed, but she shook her head.

"I wasn't asking you." She said with a scowl. Howard looked shocked for a moment, but then switched to an annoyed expression. Alex looked at me, wanting me to tell her instead.

"We were going over plans like Howard said." I said. I didn't know why Alex just brushed Howard off like that, but it was clear there was something she didn't like about him.

"Well, whatever you're deciding on, I think it's best we head out right away." She suggested.

"Agreed. Let's move while it's still morning." I said.

"Wait… now?" Howard responded, his eyes widened for some reason. We both nodded. "But, we haven't even had the chance to eat yet."

"We can eat on the way." I pointed out, feeling a pang of hunger within my stomach at the mention of eating.

I saw my horse and Alex's mule standing around the dirt hut, still tied to the fences we set down thankfully. Howard's horse was with him, of course. Elisa(which I reminded myself was my horse's new name) was staring at me with a look in her eyes, though I couldn't tell what kind of look it was. Most likely, it wasn't a look that an obedient horse would have.

"Okay then… let's get ready then." Howard said as he straightened himself and jumped up onto his horse. While I was walking over to my horse, Alex ran over to her mule, undoing the lead and quickly jumping up onto him.

I undid my horse's lead and looked at her straight in the eye. I had heard rumors that horses were able to tell what you were thinking by looking at your eyes, though I wasn't sure if it was true. Regardless, I was hoping she could tell from looking into mine that we needed to learn to get along. I pulled out an apple and gave it to her to munch on, then jumped up onto her back.

I lowered my arm for Joey to grab onto with his front leg and lifted him up onto the horse, positioning him in front of me. I noticed both Alex and Howard were looking at me, as if waiting. Then, I realized why.

"Oh, sorry!" I stammered and quickly reached into my inventory to pull out the compass. But not before accidentally pulling out an enderpearl I was holding onto instead. "Oops…" I nervously muttered as I put away the pearl, and managed to take out the compass this time.

Waiting for the needle to settle, I mentally scolded myself for making things a lot more awkward than they should've been. Then, the compass settled, pointing to the west and slightly northwards. I shot my arm straightened in the direction the compass aimed.

"That way!" I declared. After turning our horses to the proper direction(Alex's mule was already facing the right way though), we slowly began to head off.

Soon, we were going to arrive at the village where Alex and I grew up in. The place where it had all happened… I knew that it was going to be hard for both of us, coming back to a place we grew up in after years of intentionally avoiding it. But, after thinking over my dream, although I still couldn't remember much, I did remember hearing part of a sentence. 'Return to your home village…' was all I remembered hearing, but it was enough to confirm that what we were doing was the right thing.

 _An hour later…_

I began to recognize the nearby areas. We had been traveling all day. Surprisingly enough, Elisa had given me very little problems.

We were in a snow biome, the one I could faintly remember us living in when we were young teens. We were getting closer to the village. But I suspected we might find our second home here first.

I noticed Joey in front of me was shaking, he wasn't used to the cold. And neither was I, as my teeth began to chatter in my mouth. I looked through my inventory, hoping to find something I could use to warm him up. All I found were a couple blocks of netherrack, a flint and steel, and some torches.

Unfortunately, neither netherrack or flint and steel would do much for us while we were on the move, but at least I could hold a lit torch for a little before my arm would get tired. So, I used the netherrack as a rough surface and slid the torch across its surface, instantly igniting the stick.

Suddenly, the block of netherrack began to smolder, and I immediately shoved it back into my inventory to extinguish it. I hadn't even considered what would happen if I had done that.

Holding on to the now blazing torch, I held it right next to my pig. He began to feel its heat and turned to glance at the bright object. Then, he looked back at me with a hearty grin. I grinned back and held the torch for several minutes.

 _That evening…_

Half the day later, I finally lowered my arm and put out the torch, my arm having grown very heavy. But Joey was no longer shivering, and I could tell he really appreciated the warmth. And then we continued onwards. Hopefully we would get there before nightfall.


	17. Chapter 17: Crumbling ruins of the past

It was approaching nighttime, but I began to see collapsed ruins up ahead. I took another look at my compass. It was pointing directly towards the ruins. I looked down and closed my eyes, sighing. It took until this very moment, while I saw the destroyed remains of the first houses, to realize just how badly I didn't want to be here.

I looked over at the other two. Alex was glancing down, as if the sight of the ghost town had been too much for her. Her face was filled with bitterness. Howard on my other side was still staring ahead, a look of determination on his face. Joey was still asleep in front of me, snorting occasionally, completely oblivious to everything. I kept my eyes down, as if that would keep the bad thoughts from coming. None of us said anything to each other until we had arrived.

I looked around the village reluctantly. There was hardly anything left of our home town. Many of the blocks that had originally been parts of houses must've eventually decomposed and disappeared. I could see moss had grown over several individual cobblestone blocks, no doubt flourishing throughout the years. All that remained were the ruined foundations of several houses. And as the sun was continuing to set, the entire place took on a more ominous atmosphere. I could even hear the wind blowing slowly.

"Well, we're here…" Howard started, "The question is, now what?"

"We need to search for some clues." I said. "Something that can help us out with this whole thing with those horsemen and Herobrine."

"It's really dark though, we need to wait until morning first." He pointed out.

"No… not here…" Alex spoke up for the first time in a while. "I'm not going to sleep in this place…"

"Me neither…" I agreed.

"Well… we can't be looking around for clues in the middle of the night." Howard replied. "We'll be eaten alive by zombies!" As much as I didn't want to stay here any longer than we had to, I couldn't help but agree with him on that.

"Then… let's just make a shelter somewhere else in the area." Alex sighed with reluctance.

"Good idea." He said and we left the ruins of what was once my home to look for a good place to stay for the night.

While mobs were beginning to spawn, we were finishing up the final touches within a nice shelter in the foot of a mountain not too far from the town.

I lit up a few torches up set them all around the hut. Alex crafted a door with the crafting table and placed it in the frame. Howard was still outside, tying our steeds to fence posts, but he came back as soon as he was done.

"Let's get some rest." He said as he brought out two beds, one for me and one for himself. Alex brought hers out as well-she didn't want him to carry her bed for some reason.

As soon as he placed my bed down, I jumped down on top of it and spread out my arms, yawning with exhaustion. Joey was about to jump onto the bed, but remembered that he wasn't supposed to do that, and so he stopped himself.

Before the others had even got into their beds, I was fast asleep.

 _I dreamed of nothingness. I was suspended in a world of absolutely nothing. Literally, there was absolutely nothing all around. I had the feeling I should've been experiencing another conversational vision between those two mysterious voices, but for some reason, I could not hear anything._

 _I could've sworn I saw a black figure in front of me, but before I could verify, it blended into the background. And then, I felt the entire blank space I was in shake and shudder with force that made me think of laughter._

" _ **Soon…"**_ _chuckled a deep and raspy voice, that was also sharp, like the edge of a sword. And then, the entire dreamscape vanished._

I awoke and headed outside before the others were awake. Fortunately, it was early morning, and I watched as many of the mobs of the night burned away. Our steeds were sleeping away while spiders scurried to the nearest trees and caves, the rays of the sun draining them of energy as they clicked and hissed. Creepers stayed where they were, completely unbothered by the morning sun. Thankfully, the nearest creeper was more than a couple dozen blocks away and wouldn't be a threat.

I sat down with my arms wrapped around my knees and looked at the ruins of what used to be my childhood home, feelings tons of different emotions, but mostly sadness and regret.

"Hey…" Alex's voice said softly from behind. I turned to look at her. Her face was full of grief at the sight of our home town.

"Good morning…" I muttered as she sat down with me.

"It really is our home village…" she murmured sadly.

"Yeah…" I sighed. We sat in silence for a few.

"I can still hear their voices, Alex…" I said, memories of what happened that night flashing through my mind.

"Me too…" she replied dryly.

"I don't even know if there was anything we could've done." I stammered, a small tear particle forming at the corner of my eye.

"I don't think there was anything we could've done… I mean, we were only eight…" she pointed out.

"I miss Mom and Dad…" I muttered.

"Me too…" she trailed off.

We waited until Howard and Joey were up and ready. Then, we headed over to the crumbling ruins of what was once my home, guiding our horses and mule along the way.

 **Skulrein's POV**

I sat on my skeletal steed from atop the mountain, watching as the humans below headed off for the crumbled remains of the village. Then, I silently directed my steed down the face of the mountain, remaining stealthy to the humans.

I was unsure as to what the humans were doing here, but I was certain it was not good business. I was not about to challenge them alone. As well-trained as I was in combat, to take on so many people who have good enough combat experience would be a very bold and unwise decision, and I was bound to get hurt.

 **Steve's POV**

From the moment I took a step inside the remains of what was once my home, memories flashed throughout my mind. I remembered crafting my first item, and how happy my parents were when it happened. I remembered racing around the house, chasing Alex and vice versa when we would play tag. I remembered when we would sit at the table and eat dinner. And even though the house was barely still standing, I recognized it perfectly.

While I was searching for something, anything, that could help us out, I found an item frame hanging against the wall. Contained within it sat a book that glowed slightly purple.

"Huh?" I muttered to myself. I didn't remember any books on item frames back when I lived in this house. And the fact that it was glowing told me that it was a finished book as well. Not an enchanted book, as it lacked a buckle around it. I went over to the book and took it out of the frame, then looked over its cover. The title read _'To the hero,'_ to which I was unsure of how to react. I flipped to the first page, wondering who could have written this book.

' _According to legend, the one who is destined to defeat the menace known as Herobrine is to come to this town after its downfall. Take this book with you-it will serve you well.'_ The page ended there, so I turned to the next page. I felt like I shouldn't be reading this, since I was by no means heroic at all, but sheer curiosity made me keep going and I continued to read.

' _This village hides a secret very few know about. Under this village lies a stronghold. Although, this stronghold is no ordinary one, for it houses the legendary blade said to be capable of smiting those borne of the darkness. This sword is called the Sword of Heroes, and it is the one weapon capable of destroying Herobrine.'_ The page ended there. I was about to flip to the next page when Alex joined me.

"Hey, did you find anything useful?" she asked. I held up the book.

"This book mentions a weapon that can be used to defeat Herobrine." I informed. Then I realized that Alex probably didn't know who Herobrine was. But before I could try to explain to her, she spoke up.

"Really?" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. "That's great!"

"Wait, do you know who Herobrine is?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yes… I've encountered him before. He tried to kill me. And I've had some… disturbing dreams about him recently…" she revealed. I began to feel anger build up within me. I remembered how afraid I was when I had encountered him, but hearing that he had tried to kill my sister, I felt more protective of her.

"I've had some dreams recently, but I can't seem remember what they're about anymore…" I muttered, "Which is odd, because I was able to remember them clearly last week…"

"Well, does the book say anything about where this weapon might be?" she asked.

"It does mention a stronghold somewhere under the village." I pointed out.

"Really? There was a stronghold under us this whole time?" she stammered. I nodded. "Well, any idea on where the entrance may be? Because I'm sure we don't have time to dig all around the town. We've got to head to that other village soon." I wondered how she knew about the other village. Perhaps Howard told her. Regardless, I looked back at the book and flipped to the next page, quickly reading through it.

' _The entrance to the stronghold is beneath the house this book was placed within. The owner of the house had an important task to guard the stronghold. Before the village had fallen, the stronghold was under the control of its inhabitants. However, throughout the years, it slowly was reclaimed by darkness, and so there will likely be danger as you venture inside to look for the sword of legend. Remain on your guard as you enter the underground fortress.'_ This took me by surprise.

"What is it?" Alex questioned, noticing the look in my eyes. I looked up at her.

"It says the entrance is under the house…" I revealed to her. Her eyes widened again with shock. "That's not all either. The owner of the house was supposed to guard it."

"What? But that would mean-"

"Yeah… Dad was in charge of protecting the entrance…" I finished, just as perplexed as she was.

"But…" she couldn't even finish her sentence.

"Well, it's not like he really had a reason to tell us… I mean, we were just kids." I pointed out.

"At least we now have a good idea about what he did whenever he went into the basement." She replied.

"Agreed." I closed the book and put it away into my inventory. "I'm going to look for an entrance. You get Howard. We might need help." I insisted. She nodded in understanding.

"I'll be right back." She assured and ran off to look for Howard. I looked around for anything that could help me uncover some sort of hidden passageway.

I first started with the room that belonged to me and Alex when we were kids. I didn't expect there to be any secret passages or the like, I just wanted to see it for the first time since the night we lost our parents.

As I entered the room, I was hit with an even stronger wave of nostalgia. I looked around the place. It seemed to have been untouched by time, as there were no signs of damage or wearing. It was a three-by-three-by-three room, which surprised me. When I was younger, I remember thinking that it was a big room, but now, as an adult, it felt very cramped with our two beds against the walls and our single chest between. Not to mention the book shelf in front of my bed. On top of the book shelf sat a clay pot. In the pot, a withered dead bush stood, its branches looking incredibly dried and weak. I remembered that it used to be an oak tree sapling.

Seeing the withered husk of the sapling brought tears to my eyes. I used to take good care of that plant when I was little. My parents had told me that with enough care, it would grow into a great big oak, but seeing it in such a decayed state reminded me that things were never going to go back to the way they were.

Before I could start to bawl, I decided to focus on the positives and approached the chest. Alex and Joey were still with me, still alive, even after all these years. And we weren't in a bad situation. And there were still other villages. Civilization wasn't dead yet. And with that in mind, I opened up the chest.

Inside, there were several oak logs. I found some wool and a few different dyes too. There were some cookies, and I realized that I had hid them there for me to snack on at night without my parents knowing. I remembered one night when I was eating one of them after I thought Alex was asleep. She wasn't and heard me eating them and she had wanted me to share some. I didn't want to, but she decided to blackmail me, saying that if I didn't give her any she was going to tell Mom the next day. So, I had to let her eat as many cookies as she wanted each night, which had been aggravating, because she was very greedy.

I smiled at the memory. Even though it hadn't been a good one, it was one that I had completely forgotten. It was somewhat nice to reminisce about life before that night.

I took everything in the chest and put them away into my inventory. I knew that wool and dyes would likely never be of much use for me, but all those things had such sentimental value to me. I had memories for each of them. The logs were from the first tree I punched down, and I could remember the smile on my dad's face as I did it. The wool was from my first time at the farm, where the farmer taught me how to shear sheep. I remember him also teaching me how to milk a cow, but I had immediately consumed the milk. The dyes were from when my mom and I were making my first painting. She had taught me how to make many of the secondary colors using primary ones, and how to make more colors from those. I wanted to keep everything from this place, so I could never forget all the times I had, good and bad, before that night.

I left the room and went into the room that used to belong to my parents. It was almost exactly the same as how I remembered it, aside from a few holes in the walls and floor. The room was a five-by-five one, with the wooden ceiling being three blocks above the floor just like everywhere else in the house. There were two beds in the center of the room, with a crafting table to the right and a double chest to the left.

I went over to the chest. It felt somewhat wrong to go through my parents' chest, but I needed all I could get for when we take on Herobrine. And, I was pretty curious what my parents had stored away into their chest. I opened up the chest.

Inside the container, I found a bunch of string, rotten flesh, and bones. I also found a dozen arrows and a bow. There was also cobblestone, andesite, granite, some glass, a redstone torch, several cooked porkchops and steak, a few ladders, an iron sword, and a full set of iron armor. I realized that the armor had belonged to my dad.

Taking out the set of armor, I held the pieces out and looked at them. My dad had been a knight who fought for the village whenever it needed him. He was very proud about it too, and I remembered all the times he would talk about fighting the mobs the night before, or about training with the other knights. Alex didn't really care, but I would always listen to every story he told with fascination. I really looked up to my dad, he was my hero. I brought the armor pieces to my chest and closed my eyes.

"I miss you, Dad…" I mumbled to myself. "I miss you and Mom. I just wish I could've said goodbye to you." I wished Dad was here, alive and with us. He would know what to do. He would be able to protect us from those horsemen. He was a hero.

I wasn't a hero. I wasn't like my dad. All I've done throughout the past decade is run away from my troubles. I never challenged the mobs freely like he did. In fact, Howard seems to be much more qualified than I was. But Herobrine seemed pretty confident when he called me a hero. I don't know why, though he seemed to be the kind of person that was very intelligent.

I reminded myself that this didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding this sword that was supposedly the only thing capable of stopping Herobrine. I put the armor into my inventory and went back through the chest, taking the arrows and sword and putting them away. Then, I picked out the steak and put those away too, but leaving the porkchops untouched. I stopped eating porkchops after my eighth birthday, because that was the day I became friends with Joey. It just wasn't right to eat what was once a pig when my best bud's a pig.

My search of the room now finished, I turned around and headed back towards the door. After taking a few steps though, I heard a creak as my foot touched a carpet tile and froze. This didn't surprise me that much since I knew that under our carpeted flooring were wooden blocks, but this creak didn't sound like it came from a thick block. It sounded like it came from a wooden slab or tile of some sort.

I removed the carpet from under me and was shocked to find a trapdoor. It looked like it led to a tunnel leading underground at a diagonal angle. I opened the trapdoor and saw another under the carpet adjacent to the initial door, and once I freed that one, I found a third one beyond it, then proceeded to remove the carpet from above it as well. Then, I jumped down into the downward mine.

It didn't lead very far down, and was somehow still lit up by torches. I had no idea how that was possible. This mine had to have been several years old, possibly even decades old. How could the torches have lasted that long. I knew torches could last a long time, but certainly not years. But that wasn't important now, finding out where this mine led to was. I continued to travel at a downward angle until the tunnel leveled. I came across an iron door at the end. Perhaps behind the door was where the entrance was? The question was, how was I going to get past the door? I no longer had a pickaxe to use, and I wasn't sure if I had the materials to craft another iron one.

I searched through my inventory for something to use. My hands came out with a cobblestone and a stick. Of course! I thought to myself, I should make a lever and use that to open the iron door.

I brought the two materials together and crafted them into a single lever. Then, carrying the lever, I went over to the iron door and placed it down right next to the door. I flipped the switch and it opened the door with a metallic clang. I went through the door, unsure of what I would find.

Through the door was a fairly large chamber. The weird thing was that instead of being made out of wood like the rest of the house, the room was all stone. It actually did look like we were underground. It took a moment, but my eyes adjusted to the darkness. And I realized that the room was completely empty. _No, that definitely isn't all there is,_ I thought with logic in mind. I walked towards the center of the room, wondering what could be hidden from me.

My foot pressed down against a surface that sunk to the ground with a clack. Suddenly, the entire room shuddered as the wall opened up with the sound of stone grinding against stone, revealing a staircase that led deeper into the ground.

"Whoa…" I mumbled in disbelief. I took a step closer to the newly-revealed staircase, but the moment my foot left the pressure plate, the wall instantly closed again.

I turned around and looked for the pressure plate, and once I saw where it was, I groaned. It was in the center of the chamber, far enough from the wall that I couldn't make it to the passage it was meant to open before the walls closed. Even at top speed, I would probably get crushed.

"Steven?" I faintly heard Alex's voice call out. It sounded like she was in the living room.

"In here!" I shouted in a loud voice, my voice reverberating through the thin tunnel behind me. "Come into our parents' room, you'll find it!" I waited a moment for her to arrive.

"Whoa…" she suddenly said in shock when she emerged from the tunnel. I could see Joey and Howard following behind her.

"So, I take it this is a new thing?" he asked.

"Yes, well, not 'new.' This place was probably mined out decades ago, but I never knew about it before." I explained.

"Hidden underground chambers…" he muttered, "Sounds like a fun cliché. All we need is the mob spawner and a chest filled with goodies."

"This isn't the time to be joking." Alex said, scowling at him. His casual look changed to a more defensive look.

"I'm just trying to keep spirits up." He responded.

"We don't need that right-"

"Anyways, I'm trying to solve this weird… puzzle, I guess you could call it." I interrupted, sensing an argument would erupt unless I interfered. I pointed at the stone pressure plate in the center of the room. They both turned to look at it.

"Where-oh, that's a pressure plate… isn't it?" Howard asked. I nodded.

"You see, when I step on it, it opens up that wall." I said, demonstrating as I activated the pressure plate and opened the wall. "The problem is, well, the moment I move away, the plate deactivates, shutting the passageway immediately before I can get to it."

"I see, and it's a stone pad, so you can't place items onto it to hold the pad down…" Howard muttered.

"Do either of you have any wooden planks?" I asked. Both of them went through their inventories, but after a moment Howard shook his head. Alex didn't, though.

"I was sure I had a few planks, but it seems I don't…" Howard sighed.

"I have one block." She said.

"Darn." I voiced. I knew I had no wooden planks on me, and one wasn't enough to craft what I had in mind, which was a wooden pressure plate. "We should go back up to the surface and break down a tree, so we can make a wooden pressure plate." I suggested.

"Bad idea." Alex argued. "It's nighttime, and there's a lot more mobs than usual."

"It's like they're attracted to this… ghost town." Howard said. A chill ran down my spine hearing that.

"Well, if we can't replace the stone plate with a wooden one, then there's only one thing that we can do." I said. "Someone has to stay on the pressure plate in order to let the others get through. So, we need to leave someone behind." I looked down at Joey to my side. "Joey, I want you to stay here." Joey squealed in surprise. I knelt and got down to his level.

"Remember, we're going deep underground, Joey. And the last thing I want is for you to get hurt." I said. His face turned to a scowl as he began to let out a series of low-pitched grunts of frustration.

"Wait, I got it!" Howard exclaimed and I noticed him pull out an enderpearl.

"You have an enderpearl!?" I stammered.

"How!?" Alex gasped. Howard smiled as he tossed the pearl up and let it fall into his hand.

Suddenly, his face went slack, and he disappeared, but reappeared in a flash of light a block above the floor. He fell onto the ground with a grunt. I realized he had just wasted his enderpearl.

"Howard!" I gasped with disbelief.

"You idiot!" Alex shouted angrily.

"No need to worry." He grunted as he slowly got back to his feet and steadied himself. He went back through his inventory. "I have one more." Howard assured, pulling out another pearl.

"Joey, I don't want you to come with us." I said, turning back to him. Joey grunted in protest.

"Steven, I think he should." Alex said. I looked at her.

"Alex, I don't want him to get hurt. He's a pig, it's not like he can use a weapon. He can't even wear armor like you and me." I pointed out.

"Steven, remember that time when we brought Joey with us underground when we were younger? You were very opposed to bringing him, but I convinced you. And in the end, he saved us from being ambushed by the spiders in that dungeon by warning us in time." She brought up. I recalled that memory. She did have a point, and he had definitely helped us with avoiding fights before.

"Well, fair enough." I decided reluctantly. "Joey, you can come with us." The pig snorted.

"You guys ready?" Howard asked.

"Yes." Alex responded. Howard went over to the pressure plate and stepped onto it, his foot pushing it into the ground and causing the wall ahead to open up with the sound of heavy stone blocks grinding against each other.

The three of us went into the corridor past where the stone blocks would be pushed back together by unseen pistons. Then, Howard threw his last enderpearl, where it landed right next to me. His body then teleported up against me and pushed me against the wall. I grunted in discomfort as my arm hit the cold stone wall.

I heard the walls close in behind us. Immediately, the hallway turned completely dark, though it was quickly lit back up by Alex's torches.

"Well, that's how you cheat through a puzzle I'm sure someone put a lot of effort into making." I said to myself as we went ahead. The tunnel was pretty wide, so we were able to move side-by-side. Alex placed down a torch whenever it began to get dark.

"Yeah, well, to be fair, all we'd need to do is wait until morning to get some wood and I could make us a pickaxe to mine through." Howard pointed out.

Soon, the floor, wall, and ceiling began to change to stonebricks. Some of the bricks were cracked, some were covered with strands of moss, though some were untouched by time. A little further, and the hall finally ended with a wall, where a single iron door stood.

"Well, this must be it." Howard said. "This must be where the stronghold begins."

"The question is how do we get past this door?" I murmured, but then remembered something that Alex had said that gave me an idea.

"Alex, you said you have a single wooden plank, right?" I questioned. She nodded. "Perhaps you should make that into a button that we can use to open the door."

"Good point." She said as she brought out the block. After crafting it into a wooden button, she went up to the door and placed it right beside it. Then, Alex brought her bow out and readied an arrow, firing it into the wooden button and activating it.

"There, that way the button won't cause the door to slam into our faces everytime we press the damn thing." She said, glaring at the wooden knob with loathing. Clearing, she's had a lot of annoying experiences with them, and I didn't blame her for that.

"Now, this is going to be dark. Really dark. We're going to need to place down a lot of torches as we go along." Howard pointed out.

"There's no need to worry about that, I've got a ton of them." Alex assured, and gave me a couple dozen torches, then gave Howard some more as well.

"We might also need to split up if being together proves too ineffective. I'd recommend we consider going in pairs."

"That seems like a good idea." I agreed.

"Okay, let's do this then." He said, and we went through the doorway one at a time.


	18. Chapter 18: The trial for the Sword

**Hey guys, I thought I'd let you know that we're getting close to the end of the second book. Crazy, huh? Book 2 is actually shorter than the first book. I also wanted to let you know that at some point I'll begin posting facts at the start of chapters to help build up the world a bit, from the biological facts about humans and mobs to the world itself. That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy this chapter, and don't forget to leave a review!**

I wasn't sure what to expect from a stronghold, but I couldn't believe how many places this one had. We had come across some kind of fountain room, and then we found a set of what I assumed to be jail cells.

I wasn't sure what a jail would be doing in a stronghold, but was disturbed when I saw two skeletons sitting in one of them while the other was empty. They had just watched us while we went past them, not even raising their bows. I wasn't sure if they spawned in the cells, or if they were what remained of the prisoners, or if they were the ones imprisoned, but it was as if they had simply given up. It seemed like they were just waiting for when they would despawn and cease to exist.

We then managed to come across a massive library. Within the library were hundreds, if not thousands of books on their shelves, and there were cobwebs all over the place. There was even a second floor, and I could see even more bookshelves up there. Above us hung a huge wooden chandelier with several torches on it.

"Whoa…" Alex gasped in awe of the sight.

I decided to pick out a book at random. The title read, _'The Battle Of Minefield'_. Out of curiosity, I flipped to the first page.

' _The Battle of Minefield was a battle that took place during the Diamond War. It was a literal battle that took place in a minefield as when the Warrior faction sought to take control of Minefield from the Griefers, they had TNT mines set all around the outside of the village. So, when the warriors began their invasion, they were met with heavy resistance by the mines. These mine traps had been set up as far as a mile from the perimeter of the town. Many of the warriors that survived the deadly ordeal had permanently lost their hearing, or had lost their sight from particle shrapnel. Some of them had permanent scars across their bodies, while others had lost their limbs entirely.'_ The page ended there, but I turned the page out of morbid curiosity, disturbed by myself in the process.

' _Warriors that survived the dangerous raid described it as being horror at every moment as their comrades fell beside them. To this day, there still remain inactivated TNT mines in the land surrounding Minefield. For this reason, when the raid was over, the griefer faction left the village in search of another. It remains unknown whether they achieved that goal.'_ I closed the book, not wanting to read anymore.

"I think this stronghold wasn't abandoned that long ago." Howard said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, I think this stronghold was still in commission as soon as fifty years ago." He clarified.

"That would make sense." Alex agreed while she was reading another book. "In fact, this book seems to imply that books were still being written and stored here twenty years ago." She flipped a page, and her eyebrows furrowed. "Um-wait… Um… guys, this book seems to talk about Herobrine." She pointed out. We both immediately went to her.

"Really?" I replied, and she nodded as she handed the book to me. I read the title, _'My Journal #72'_ before proceeding to look through the page.

' _I had a dream last night. I dreamed that a white-eyed demon was flying through the skies. He threw charges of fire at the screaming people, and they would be vaporized whenever one would hit them. This monster was laughing as he killed more and more people, as if their deaths made him feel genuine joy. Then, he flew after me. I started to run, but then one of his charges hit me, and everything went dark. And then I woke up. That man… whatever he is, he is no ordinary person. I don't even think he's human.'_ I flipped to the next page, but it was unrelated.

"That's weird… and you said this book supposedly was written around twenty or so years ago?" Alex nodded. "So, this person had a dream about what probably was Herobrine twenty years ago…"

"That would mean that he must've respawned around that time." Howard pointed out. "Is there anything else in there about him?" I flipped through the next few pages and skimmed through them until I found another page with Herobrine.

' _I tried to tell my fiancé about him. She didn't believe me. She's saying that I'm being paranoid over a dream. I then talked with my fellow sparring partners. None of them believed me. I tried to bring it up with the mayor. She wouldn't even listen. I know something is up. That man, whatever he is, he is a monster. But, as hard as it will be, I can't let this destroy my life. After all, pretty soon, I'll be getting married to my beautiful fiancé. Then, we're going to start our family. But I'll be ready. If this monster thinks he's going to hurt my family or village, he's going to have to go through me first.'_ I flipped to the next page to see if there was anymore, but that was the end of the book.

"Well, from what I could understand, this person was afraid of Herobrine attacking him and his family. He tried to talk with other people, but no one would believe him. So, he decided not to ruin his life by obsessing over it, instead focusing on his upcoming wedding. That's pretty much all it was." I informed.

Just then, I heard a moan and the trudging of steps by the entrance of the library. We all instantly went to our weapons. Howard snuck to the corner of the bookshelf and peeked out, then readied his weapons. He then stepped out from the shelf and swung his sword and axe together to the side. I could hear the zombie let out a final cry of defeat from the force of the two powerful weapons and then burst into smoke.

"Okay, we're good now." He said after looking around.

"We need to go. We've been here too long." I said, my body for some reason being hit with a second rush of adrenaline. Joey grunted in response, though I wasn't sure what he said.

"Agreed." Alex added.

"I think we should split up, like we talked about." Howard said.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"I'm thinking you and Joey should go together. You seem to be a great team." He complimented. "And, uh… Alex and I will have to work together."

"Why should I work with you?" she questioned, giving him a mean look.

"Look, I've traveled with Steve and Joey. When they were together, they worked to fight mobs off very well. I didn't expect it. And plus, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I want to try to get along with you a lot better." He requested.

"Really? That's the best you've got? I think you know my answer then." She snorted. His face grew more frustrated.

"There's no point in being a team if we can't work together." He sighed, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Alex, come on. I don't know why you're holding this grudge against him, but could you please just give him a chance?" I requested. She looked at me, a softness in her eyes.

"Well… screw it. Fine, but once we find this stupid sword I'm done with working with him." She grunted. I smiled.

"Thank you, Alex."

"I'm only doing it for you, Steven." She reminded as she and Howard went on their way. I nodded in understanding. I put away the book and headed down a dark hallway at random, Joey following me as I lit up the way.

Whenever we encountered a mob, I would kill it before it noticed me. Then, I'd proceed to light up the area it had been.

After several moments of traveling through dark halls and stairs and chambers, I came across a massive room. I couldn't even count how large it was. The room was dimly lit by redstone torches, and there were stonebrick stairs that led higher up. At the very top of the stairs, I could see an object floating, bobbing up and down. Upon taking a closer look, I realized that it was a blue sword. Then, in a flash, the memory of what I had dreamed about the other night came back to me.

I had dreamed about the sword. The sword was guiding me. It wanted me to find it, so that we could save the world from the evil that was Herobrine.

"What the…" I muttered as I began to slowly walk up the stairs. It was weird, this was all so foreign to me, but at the same time it felt completely natural. Joey didn't follow me.

I went up, step after step, until finally, the sword was in front of me. It looked more different from my own sword than I thought it would. It was clearly a diamond sword, and not only was its color different from my iron sword, but the guard was different too. It was more diagonally straight than the standard sword design, and the diamond in the center seemed to glow slightly.

I reached out and the sword flew into my hand. The moment it was in my grip, I was hit with a sudden wave of realization. I truly was the hero Herobrine had been talking about. He hadn't been mistaken. All my naivety had only held me back. Maybe I hadn't been a hero before, but now it fell onto me to become the hero the world needed. I was the one destined to defeat Herobrine. There was no way I would've been able to pick up the sword otherwise. It didn't matter how insecure I had been. All this time, I was the new hero of Minecraftia. What was weird was that even though I had been taken by surprise over what had just happened, something from deep inside me had always known. And now, I had to stop him. But the question was, where was he? First, I had to find Alex and Howard.

I heard a squeal of terror from the entrance and immediately looked back. In front of the entrance stood an unusually large skeleton. The skeleton appeared to be wearing leather shoulder pads. It also had a huge lower jaw that was larger than the rest of its face. And in its huge ribcage, my pig was trapped, squealing with fright and unable to get out. The skeleton had a bow attached to its arm, and had the bow aimed upwards directly at me with an arrow nocked.

"Well, well, well… We meet at least, hero of humanity…" the skeleton addressed in a shockingly deep voice that rung in my mind, "I am Skulrein, one of the Order of the Apocalypse and the most trusted of King Herobrine's horsemen. And you will not leave this chamber alive." Anger swelled up within my body at the sight of Joey in his ribcage, trapped like a sheep inside a surface jungle tree.

"Let go of my pig!" I shouted at the skeleton, raising the legendary blade.

"And why would I do that?" the skeletal archer questioned, keeping his bow nocked.

"Because if you don't, I will kill you!" I threatened. Skulrein let out a loud chuckle, which sounded and looked weird coming from a skeleton.

"I see you are very confident of that. But yet, I must question why you think that you can succeed in defeating me when I am the one with the bow, at a far distance from the one with a sword-you." He pointed out, speaking in a completely calm voice the entire time. "It may be a legendary blade of the humans, but I believe that does not make any difference in this situation."

"Just let him go, he has nothing to do with this!" I hollered.

"I can't help but admire that. You would rather see to it that your weak companion is safe over your own well-being. I can certainly see why you were chosen to be the hero of mankind." He praised, but then his expression hardened again. "Unfortunately for you, it is my task to take you out. King Herobrine sees that you have become a threat, and now it is up to me to make sure you do not follow him into the End." This caught my attention.

"Wait, the End? What's the End?" I asked. I had never heard of such a thing.

"The End, the remnants of what was once a world very much like ours. My king is there, and he plans to win the enderdragon over to our cause. And I will not allow you to interrupt him." He stood up to his full height, which appeared to be two and a half blocks, and lowered his bow slightly.

"I must admit, I was quite looking forward to meeting you, the hero of humanity. I have trained with my brothers for nearly two decades, and I have sought an opponent that would be worthy of challenging. And as far as first impressions go, you do not disappoint me. And so, I shall respectfully end your life as quick and painlessly as I can."

Faster than my eyes could follow, he raised his bow and fired an arrow directly at me. I barely had time to step out of the way. Another whizzed right by my head and clattered against the stonebrick wall. I let out a startled yelp. He fired a third arrow, but I narrowly managed to avoid it. I heard Joey squeal helplessly from within Skulrein's ribs and put on a determined face.

Immediately, I began to rush down the stairs. Arrows flew at me, but several of them were deflected. I realized that it was because I was still wearing my armor, which was a lucky thing. I felt one embed itself into my arm and cried out in pain, but kept going.

When I was around halfway down the stairs, I felt an arrow hit my armored feet and knock me off-balance, causing me to fall down the stairs. My body began to roll down each step, and I grunted with discomfort as I hit every ledge.

Once I was at the bottom stair in front of Skulrein, I immediately got back to my feet. Still keeping my grip on the Sword of Heroes, I readied to swing it at Skulrein when I realized that Joey was in the way. I hesitated, and the horseman slammed his elbow against me, knocking me back against the stairs with a pained grunt.

I groaned as he lifted me up with his large skeletal arms and stared at me. I could see straight into his empty eye sockets. Skulrein raised one of his fists and slammed it against my face, pushing my body back to the stairs. I cried out in pain as my body flashed red. I could hear Joey screaming from within the ribcage.

"This shall only get in the way of my task-" the skeletal horseman said as he grabbed my chestplate and helmet and tore them from my body. I tried to reach for them, but he planted his foot against my chest, keeping me trapped in place as he threw the armor far away. Then, he aimed his bow directly at my face, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.

Suddenly, I began to hear the desperate grunting of Joey. I opened my eyes to see my pig struggling frantically from within Skulrein's ribcage. He bit down on one of the ribs, somehow causing the ones around his head to loosen ever-so-slightly. Then, Joey headbutted the skeleton's spiny torso, knocking the horseman away from me.

"Quit it, boar!" Skulrein demanded curtly, his attention focused on the pig he was restraining. I took this as an opportunity and got back up to my feet, then charged at the distracted horseman.

I raised my sword and aimed for a swing against his back, then swung. The sword slammed against the back of Skulrein's spine, causing him to lurch forward. His ribs opened all at once, likely some kind of nerve response to the attack from behind, and Joey fell out. The pig was quick to run to my side.

Skulrein straightened himself out and turned to face us, then used his hands to push his skull back into place.

"That was clever, what you did there." He praised. "You two do in fact make quite a good team, just as the other human had said." I got the feeling he was talking about what Howard had said earlier, which made me feel paranoid. Was it possible he had been there with us, without us knowing?

Skulrein raised his bow and nocked an arrow at me, "Of course, the fact of the matter is that your team consists of a pig and a human. That is all. And of all the horsemen you have faced, I am the best of them. I have already won." He boasted, his voice still unnervingly calm.

"We'll see about that!" I growled, holding the Sword of Heroes out in front of me. Joey snorted beside me, ready to help. After a silent standoff, I charged at him.

He fired an arrow, but I held my left arm over my face and felt the arrow bury itself into my arm. It hurt, but I toned it out as I swung my sword at the skeleton. But right before the sword could make contact, he blocked my arm with his own, stopping my swing dead in its track.

Skulrein was knocked back a step when Joey tackled his bony leg. I quickly swung the sword back at him again, and Skulrein flashed red, taking another step back while he grunted in pain.

I went for another slash, but the skeletal leader was faster and slammed his elbow against my head, knocking me back down to the ground. I groaned in pain and remembered that I didn't have a helmet anymore, so I had taken the full brunt of that attack. I looked up just in time to see him kick Joey powerfully, sending the pig flying until he struck against the stonebrick wall. I tried to push myself back to my feet, but I suddenly felt completely drained of energy.

"You see? You two are no match for me. Maybe if you had more time to train, you could consider standing your ground against me in battle. Now, I must finish you off, and then I will find the other two and finish them off as well." He declared.

"Wait… I won't let you hurt them…" I growled, trying even harder to lift myself up, but I was completely devoid of strength. I didn't know how or why I was suddenly all tuckered out.

"Just accept it. You were foolish enough to take that arrow, which I had tipped with weakness. You have lost." He revealed. That was when an idea came to me. If he had shot me with an arrow tipped with weakness, then that effect would have to wear off at some point. I just had to keep him distracted.

"No… you're wrong… I won't give up…" I muttered.

"You have no say in the matter. You are too weakened." He pointed out. I looked back up at him.

"Wait... can you at least tell me this?… Why you are doing this to us? Why are you trying to destroy humans?" I asked, trying to keep him talking. The skeletal horseman lowered to his knee, eyeing me.

"Because humans are killing this world faster than you would think. My king knows that to save it, he must eradicate all of mankind before it is too late. He learned the hard way that the humans are not to be trusted. The Overworld can only be safe once he rules it with an iron fist. And with you dead, there will be no one that can stand against him." He revealed.

"No… I refuse…" I mumbled.

"You have no choice. This is your end-the end of humanity." He declared, and I watched as he nocked an arrow, aimed directly at my face.

"No… I was weak once before. But I won't lose this time." I promised, feeling a faint strength returning to my body. I remembered the time when I couldn't stop that enderman from taking Alex away from me. I couldn't let something like that happen again. I couldn't let any more people get hurt.

"Goodbye, hero-"

"NO! I REFUSE TO GO DOWN!" I yelled as the strength returned to my arms. I pushed myself to my feet and brought the Sword of Heroes up at Skulrein, striking him at the bottom of his skull. He cried out in pain and flashed red.

"Clever… You are very clever, for a human…" he muttered as he once again raised his bow. "You distracted me by keeping me talking and stalling for time, so that the weakness from the arrow would fade. What a foolish mistake on my part…" His face turned to a scowl, which was a bit difficult to see on a skeleton. "However, that changes nothing. You still stand no chance."

"I won't let you hurt my friends!" I yelled, and rushed at him.

He fired arrow after arrow at me, but my mind was suddenly filled with options of what to do. I ran past one and jumped over another, then ducked under a third one. Then, I jumped into the air and struck Skulrein with a downward swing. He was knocked back a step and grunted with pain.

The horseman tried to knock me back with his elbow again, but I saw it coming and instantly ducked under the attack, then brought my sword up and felt the tip of the blade bite into his jaw. He yelped with shock, grasping his lower jaw as he slammed his other arm against me. I was knocked sideways, but immediately went into a side roll and quickly got back to my feet.

I realized what was happening. It was the Sword of Heroes. It was helping me fight, teaching me the methods of the Great Hero who had used it before when he fought Herobrine. Now, I could see everything around us in a whole new perspective. My mind was keeping track of all the factors around us. I was completely in battle mode on strength potions. I suddenly knew of sword techniques I never even thought of before. And it had given me much more confidence than I ever had before.

I dodged an arrow from Skulrein and ran at him again. He aimed another one at me, but I held the sword up and deflected the arrow. Then, I let out a battle cry and swung my sword at him. Skulrein dodged the attack and tried to grab my sword arm, but I launched my left fist up at his face. I landed the punch and prevented him from grabbing my sword arm, then swung the sword at him again, this time aiming for his bow arm.

I landed the attack, and my sword cut through his bowstring, severing it. Skulrein let out an internal sound that might've been a gasp at the sight of this. I then swung the sword back up at him, but he blocked the attack with his arms. He flashed red, though not as bright red as normal, as though somehow his arms had blocked some of the damage.

Suddenly, he lurched forward as I heard and saw Joey slam against him. Now that he was off-balance, I brought the Sword of Heroes up at his exposed head with enough force to launch him backwards. He landed a few blocks back and steadily got up.

"Impressive… That is how a true hero fights…" he stammered, then fell to one knee. "I must say that in the short time we battled, I have grown some respect for you. I have to kill you, but because you have rendered my bow unusable, I cannot do that right now." I opened my mouth to speak, but he interrupted.

"I will not kill you today. And I will not go after your friends either, as I must repair my bow. But tomorrow is another day. I may not have to kill you though, for once you enter the End in pursuit of my king, you will find that it will be far more difficult than you may think."

Before I could respond, he produced an enderpearl and gave me a final look.

"Before I go, think to yourself about the cause you are fighting for. Is it worth it? What good has mankind done for this world?" And then, he threw it and immediately vanished from sight.

I stood for a moment, thinking about all that had just happened. Then, all the strength in my body fled, and I collapsed to my hands and knees, panting heavily. I hadn't fought hard like that, well, ever. My body felt so light, and I felt like I could pass out at any moment. I could see the Sword of Heroes, the diamond in its guard glowing bright. Now that there was no more threat, my sense of confidence vanished, and I felt the same insecurity in myself that had always been there.

Joey rubbed against me, trying to help me up. I used his back to lift me back up to my feet.

"I can't believe how intense that was…" I panted, staring at the entrance, "But we actually did it. We managed to fight off one of Herobrine's horsemen…" Joey oinked with happiness. I smiled and got back down to his level.

"I gotta say, I had my doubts. But you really came through for me during that fight. If I had another carrot, I'd give it to you, buddy." I praised. He gave me one of his signature cheeky grins, which I returned.

"Now then, let's look for Alex and Howard!" I said, and we went out through the entrance.

We found Alex and Howard much quicker than I thought it would take. I could hear them arguing, and followed their voices until I found them. They were in a fountain room and hadn't noticed us yet.

"Guys!" I called out to them. They both turned around.

"Steven, did you find-" Alex started, but stopped once she looked at the sword in my hand. "Is… is that it?" I nodded and held the sword out for them to see.

"Interesting…" Howard muttered to himself as he got a good look at it. "It looks similar to a diamond sword, but it's somewhat different…"

"Steven, what happened to you? You look like you got into a battle, and what happened to your chestplate and helmet?" Alex noted.

"Well, about that… I encountered one of the horsemen." I let that one sink in.

"What!?" Howard stammered.

"Yeah, his name was Skulrein, and he talked in a very deep voice, which took me by surprise." I described. Howard's expression became filled with hatred.

"Was… was this Skulrein a wither skeleton or one from the Overworld?" he questioned, his teeth clenched.

"He wasn't a wither skeleton." I told him, recalling that Howard's village was destroyed by a raid from an Overworld skeletal horseman. I wondered if it was possible that Skulrein was the same horseman that commanded that raid. For some reason, I didn't think so.

I could see that Howard was visibly shaking with anger. He looked like he was about explode like a creeper.

"Did you kill him?" he questioned in a quiet voice.

"No… He used an enderpearl to escape before I could…" I admitted.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Howard growled. "Steve, how could you do this!"

"Howard, I tried. Trust me-" But he cut me off.

"No! This was our chance to avenge everyone that monster killed!" he shouted as he got in my face.

"Howard, I don't know why you're acting up, but don't treat Steven like-" Alex defended, but he interrupted her.

"No! Screw you! That monster killed my fiancé! That was your perfect chance to kill him, and you blew it!" he roared, pushing me back aggressively.

"Howard, I nearly died! We were lucky he backed off, because he almost killed Joey and me!" I argued. His intense expression seemed to lessen, though only slightly.

"You know what? I'm done." He stated, then went over to the path that led back to the exit. He stopped and continued to talk, though he kept staring ahead into the darkness, "I went on this journey to avenge my deceased fiancé and family, along with my people. I wanted to kill that horseman. He ruined my life. I… I was going to raise my family in that village… But now, that's not going to happen… And now… I'm not even going to see that horseman pay for what he did…"

"Howard, please!" I called out to him, but he shook his head.

"I'm done. I'm going back to William's village. You can go fight that Herobrine on your own… It's all a lost cause anyways… I'm done…" he said and began to walk off. I could hear him beginning to sob as he left.

"Well…" I muttered, though I had nothing else to say after that. We stood in silence for a moment before Alex spoke up.

"I… I never knew… how bad that affected him…" she murmured as she shifted uncomfortably. "Now, I feel like a complete jerk for being so hard on him…"

"Yeah, well… I guess… I guess we don't need him…" I said, though I was shocked by the bitterness in my tone. Joey let out a low-pitched grunt. He was sad to see Howard leave.

"Well, what do we do next?" she asked. I raked my mind for what Skulrein had said.

"Skulrein said that Herobrine had gone into the End. He's hoping to bring the enderdragon to his side." I recalled.

"Wait, you said the End?" she asked, and I nodded. "Well, I heard that inside strongholds, there are typically portals called End portals that are supposed to take you to the End." She informed.

"Wait, where'd you hear that?" I questioned. She looked at me straight in the eyes.

"While you were alone, looking for villages, I had been brought into this camp full of people. And, well, let's just say I had to learn to live in the company of horrible people. People that planned to move into the End." She said. I wanted to ask more about these people, but the look in her eyes told me she didn't want to go into detail. That made me concerned.

"Okay… Well, we'll need to find this portal then." I stated and turned, but she grabbed my arm.

"It's not going to be that easy, Steven." She said. "The portal will be inactive. In order to activate it, we'll need twelve eyes of ender." I gave her a confused look.

"Eyes of… ender?" I repeated, wondering what those were.

"Basically, we'd need enderpearls and blaze powder." My mouth went dry when I heard enderpearls. The last time we encountered an enderman together, we were separated for years.

"How in the world are we going to get those? And what is blaze powder?" I stammered.

"First, I think we should look for the portal. That way, we know where to go." She said.

"Good point." I agreed.

"Also, on the way, I'd like to hear more about these… horsemen…" Alex requested. "They sound new, and this is the first time I've heard about them." I gave her a grim look.

"Boy, do I have a story to tell you…" I said as we began to head off.

We had found the portal room just as I was wrapping up the tale. It had taken us several minutes of navigating through the stronghold, going back and forth through corridors we had already been down. It had been one of the few times I really wish I still had my pickaxe, since I typically always had one with me. Fortunately, most of the stronghold had been well-lit by now, so we were safe from mobs.

In the center of the room, stairs led upward to the portal, which hung over a pit of lava. I could see a spawner in the stairs, and a tiny, light-grey creature spun around inside it. I had no idea what it was.

"Crap! We should've gone back and made a pickaxe!" Alex growled. "We'll need to make this quick. Luckily, I did manage to make one eye of ender while we were walking." She assured and pulled out a greenish-blue object that heavily resembled an ominous eye. I did not like the look of it at all.

Alex went over to the portal, rushing up the stairs, and then looking down at the portal. Her face became puzzled.

"Um… what?" she said to herself.

"What is it?" I replied, following her up the stairs. I made sure Joey stayed right next to me and away from the lava. I then saw what she was looking at and gasped.

From the bottom, it looked completely inactive, but from the top, the portal was a dark void filled with specks of dim light from within. They each moved very slowly back and forth. I moved around the portal, but the light sources all stayed, fixed. It was as if I was looking into another world.

"Whoa…" I murmured.

Joey, overwhelmed by what he was seeing in the portal, took another step forward, but began to slip. I immediately rushed to him and grabbed his backside just before he could fall into the portal.

"Be careful, Joey!" I reminded him, letting out a sigh of relief.

"This… this isn't right…" Alex stammered. "It shouldn't be active. Why is it active?" Just then, I heard a strange hiss from behind us.

Turning to look back, I saw a small and wriggling creature, just like the one in the mob spawner. It stared at me for a moment, but didn't look very threatening at all. In fact, it looked kind of cute. But then, the creature hissed again and lunged at me. I let out a startled yelp and drew my sword, immediately swinging it at the small creature. My weapon made contact with the mob and slammed it against the wall, where it let out a loud cry of pain.

"Steven!" Alex shouted, and the chamber began to tremble. All around me, I began to hear dozens more hissing as many parts of the walls began to vanish, another creature in their space.

"Crap, we have to jump in. Now!" Alex shouted as the mobs began to pour out from the walls and crawl up the stairs. She jumped into the portal. I grabbed Joey, and jumped into the portal as well.


	19. Chapter 19: The End

**Sorry it took longer to upload this chapter, I've been sick over the past few days and taking it easy. But anyways, this is the final chapter of Book Two. Book Three is the challenging part, because I'm only a third of the way through that one at this point, and once we get there, it'll take me longer to upload each chapter. But it'd be great to hear encouragement from some of you guys, morality-wise. So, don't forget to leave a review on what you thought about The Sword Of Heroes!**

It felt like my body was traveling through blocks. Except my body was still solid, and so I was suffocating. Then, I appeared in a fairly large pocket of air underground. Alex was right next to me, and Joey was still in my arms. I looked at the walls and ceiling. They appeared to be made of some kind of block that only faintly resembled cobblestone, but was yellow and pale. They also appeared to be very porous. I groaned and crawled back to my feet. My head was killing me.

"What is this place? Are we trapped?" I asked. Alex froze up. She had a look of complete disbelief in her eyes.

"I think we might be…" she said, her voice a higher pitch than normal. "Unless we have a pickaxe, we're stuck here…"

"Well, there's gotta be something we can do!" I said. I went through my inventory. I was certain I had no wood, but still searched, only to come up empty. "Dangit…" And then I spotted the logs.

As soon as I saw the oak logs in my inventory, my heart skipped a beat. I realized that they were the logs I had taken from my childhood chest.

"No way…" I said as I brought a couple out. "No freaking way…" I groaned, disappointed in myself on so many levels. This whole time, we had been struggling to get past all these puzzles and nonsense, complaining about not having any wood, and I had plenty on me the whole time.

"Oh my Notch, Steven, you're still just as clumsy as ever." She said, though I saw a smile form across her face. "Though, I guess that clumsiness really came in handy."

"Yeah…" I chuckled uncomfortably. Of all the things about me to be useful, I wasn't expecting it to be that.

I crafted four logs into wooden planks. Then, I crafted four of the wooden planks into a crafting table. After that, I plunked the table down and got to work, making sticks and setting them in place with more plank blocks to make two wooden pickaxes. I tossed Alex one of them and got ready with the second pickaxe. It felt weird to hold a wooden pickaxe-I was so used to carrying stone and iron pickaxes that I wasn't used to using such a low-tier tool.

We got to work and began to mine through the mysterious stone. Alex mined upwards, so I followed her lead. It was weird, it was as if she had done this all before. But when I asked her, she said this was her first time as well.

Eventually, we finally reached the surface. I climbed out of the tunnel and, while waiting for Alex and Joey, looked around. There were more of the same pale porous stone all over the landscape. Then, I noticed the sky, which was an unusual purplish color. I could see tiny specks all across the sky, except instead of being bright like stars, they were dark. It was almost as if this whole sky was meant to be the reverse of our Overworld sky.

I then noticed there were massive black precipices of obsidian that jutted out from the ground. They raised up incredibly high into the sky, and I could see something bright bobbing up and down at the very top of a few.

I then noticed something I should've noticed before. There were endermen EVERYWHERE. Many of them were shifting aimlessly throughout the world. One of the endermen that I was accidentally looking at suddenly looked back at me, and I immediately turned away and covered my eyes, praying it didn't see me looking at it.

"Are you okay?" Alex said. I slowly removed my hands from my face and looked around, but didn't see a charging enderman. I sighed in relief.

"Never better." I gave her a cheesy smile. She grinned back, then looked around.

"Oh, shoot! There's endermen everywhere!" she gasped and looked down.

"Yeah, be careful…" I said, then noticed an enderman in the distance. It was shaking with rage and charging, though not at us. I took a closer look.

It seemed to be running at a man in the distance. A man who wore a cyan shirt and lapis blue pants, just like me. Herobrine, I realized. I watched as the man turned to look at the enderman, and then raised his fist at it. Instantly, the enderman's pink pupils vanished. Its eyes were now completely white, just like Herobrine's. The enderman stopped its charge and sunk to its knees, as if succumbing to the control of the evil menace.

"Alex, did you see that?" I asked, pointing at him in the distance. He seemed to be completely still now, as if in a deep state of concentration.

"No, what happened?" she replied.

"An enderman was charging at Herobrine… and then he raised his fist at it, and it fell under his control or something." I informed.

"Really? He has the power to do that?" she stammered.

"Apparently. I don't think he knows we're here. We should sneak up before he notices." I suggested. Alex nodded, and Joey snorted in agreement. We moved ahead, staying close to the ground. Thankfully, Herobrine's back was turned. I wasn't sure what good being close to the ground was going to do, since none of us would blend in very well.

We managed to get as close as a dozen blocks away before he suddenly turned around and saw us.

"You two… what are you doing here?" he growled, with the sound of slight panic in his voice. "You weren't supposed to make it into the End!" I immediately got off the ground and raised my sword. feeling encouraged as I felt the legendary weapon in my hand. Herobrine snarled at the sight of the Sword of Heroes. "So… you managed to claim the sword. Then, you leave me with no choice. I will destroy you!" he declared. Then, he raised his hand in the air.

"To arms!" he boomed and immediately, over a dozen blank-eyed endermen teleported around us. I readied my sword while Alex got hers ready. I was shocked to see so many endermen, and I was afraid, but moreover I knew that I couldn't let these endermen get the best of us. With the blade of the Great Hero in my hand, I felt more confident than I had ever before. Joey let out a brave piggy roar. Then, the endermen charged.

I ducked under the fist of one enderman, then swung at it. My blade struck, and I heard the enderman roar its distorted cry of pain. I heard Alex shout in alarm and saw her trapped in the grip of two endermen.

I instantly charged and slashed my sword against one of the enderman, but it remained with its grip on Alex's arms. It glared at me and let out a hateful roar, barring its teeth. Then, another enderman grabbed me by the waist. I tried to fight back by slamming the sword against it, but it still held on. Another enderman grabbed onto my sword arm, and I swung my free arm at it, trying desperately to get it to release my arm, but to no avail. I was trapped, and could only watch as the endermen caught up with Joey and subdued him.

The endermen brought us before Herobrine. I kept struggling, but the endermen had strong grips of iron on me.

Suddenly, the endermen began to cry out in pain as I noticed water flowing under me. I saw that Alex was holding an empty bucket. The water flowed from under her in all directions, causing endermen to flash red as it made contact with them. The endermen around us began to teleport away. I swung my sword at the last one, and it roared in pain and teleported away.

I got ready to run at Herobrine, but then a new set of hands grabbed ahold of me, these ones were bony. I looked back to see a wither skeleton that I recognized to be Witanos sneering down at me.

"It has been a while, Steve…" he clattered. I struggled against his grip, but he was much stronger than I. I looked over at Alex. She was struggling against another large skeleton. This skeleton was just as tall as Witanos, but was an Overworld-type skeleton. Herobrine snorted.

"It's about time the two of you arrived. Where is my army?" he questioned. The two turned to look over at him.

"Your troops await within the stronghold and throughout the town. They are waiting for you to bring the beast into the Overworld and begin the Final Invasion." Witanos answered.

"Good…" Herobrine grinned, then turned to face me and sneered. "What happened to one of your partners? I had heard that there were three of you…" I scowled, and he chuckled.

"Ah, I see. A falling out, I assume? That's hilarious. Now, perhaps some use can come out of you. You see, for the past several days, I have been trying to get the enderdragon to appear before me. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful. I only just recently realized it is because the dragon was slain long ago."

He then sneered, "However, legend has it that the beast will be reborn when a human has entered the End to challenge it. To be specific, a hero who has overcome all the odds to make it to the End." He revealed. "And that's where you come in. You see, I need a hero to recreate the dragon that was destroyed in the distant past. The crystals used to resurrect the beast will only work if used by a hero." I bit my bottom lip in frustration.

"Forget it, we're not helping you." I said.

"Heh, heh, heh, I wasn't asking for your help." He vanished in a wisp of smoke, and then reappeared right in front of Alex and landed a sucker punch to her in the waist. She gasped from the pain as her body flashed red.

"Stop it!" I shouted. My body became filled with rage. I felt strength beginning to surge through my body, filled with the desire to protect my sister.

I began to overpower Witanos. He then kicked me onto the ground and planted his foot onto me, keeping me pinned to the ground. I shouted in outrage as I tried desperately to lift myself up, but I still was too weak. I had never felt so helpless in my life.

"Oh? Someone's getting a little upset." He mocked. "I'll stop if you agree to help me on my request."

"Never!" I growled, trying desperately to swing my sword.

"We'll see about that." He smirked as he delivered another powerful punch against my sister, who cried out with agony. "I should mention that my punches are far more powerful than from a petty human like you. An average punch from me deals as much as, say, an iron blade would deal to you. So, your sister is getting pretty close to death. I would factor that into your next response." He informed. "Now, what do you say?" I didn't know what to do. If I said yes, not only would I be contributing to the end of mankind, but he would undoubtedly kill us anyways. Yet, if I said no, Herobrine would kill her. And Alex was more important to me than any other person.

"Steven!" Alex screamed and locked eyes with me. "Don't do it!"

"I wouldn't resist if I were him…" Herobrine chuckled as he held his hand up. A fire charge appeared above his hand. "I believe I know what he values more than a sister that he had grown apart from…" he sneered as he turned to look down at my pig. I stopped my struggling, my eyes wide with shock. "And that's a lowly pig that he has grown attached to over the past decade…" Joey began to squeal in panic, and Herobrine chuckled arrogantly.

"No-don't!" I pleaded.

"Maybe I should… Perhaps that'll get you to stop resisting." He smirked.

"No… I'll… I'll do it…" I said, dejected. "I'll summon the enderdragon…" A malicious smile grew across his face.

"Excellent…" he jeered, then glanced at Witanos. "Release him."

"Yes, my king." Witanos replied and removed his foot from my back, allowing me to push myself up. But then, he quickly drew his weapon and held it up to my chin. "Sheath your blade. Now." He ordered. I sighed and put the Sword of Heroes back into my inventory.

"Good…" Herobrine grinned. "Now then, here's what you are to do." He waited in silence, and I realized he was waiting on me. I shuffled forward and went up to him, glaring at him balefully. He brought out four weird objects. They looked like crystals stored inside glass panes. He handed them to me. The crystals were glowing a purple aura, similar to enchanted objects.

"You are to go over to that portal-" he pointed over to a fountain that appeared to made of… bedrock? "-and you are to place these four crystals on each side of the portal. If you try to escape with the crystals, I will order the execution of your sister and pig. It will be in your best interest to do as I say, and I may allow you three to go back to the Overworld before I unleash the dragon." He assured, a confident smirk plastered across his face.

Dejectedly, I walked over to the bedrock fountain portal, not even looking back at Alex. I climbed up the portal and was surprised to see that it was still active, but knew that jumping through would be the end of my two closest friends.

Crystals in hand, I placed them along each side. The moment they touched the bedrock, they transformed into the same levitating crystals that were at the top of the obsidian towers.

When I had finally placed all four crystals, they each shot a magical beam into the sky. Immediately, the sky was filled with light from the beams as the crystals at the top of each tower shot their own beams of magical energy up. All the beams met at a point directly above the portal. I could hear crackling from somewhere, though I couldn't tell the source. As far as I could tell, it seemed to come from all around us. The End became filled with a hostile energy that invaded my body and left me feeling pains similar to swords stabbing through my body. I could hear Herobrine behind me, laughing maniacally. And then, finally, it was all over as a deafening roar blasted across the sky.

I watched as a massive beast appeared in a ball of light from where the beams met. The monster began to fly around, surveying us. It roared angrily, and then soared straight down at me. I shouted in terror and jumped away from the portal and the enderdragon landed on it, letting out a very powerful and dominant roar. It eyed us with a look of excitement as it anticipated a battle was about to begin.

I saw Herobrine walked closer to the dragon, a smile permanently fixed across his face.

"At least, we finally meet. I, the king of mobs, finally come face to face with you, the legendary Enderdragon." He declared, "I have awaited this day for twenty years! And now, you will work for me!" he ordered and raised his fist, sending a faint white aura at the dragon. The monster staggered back slightly as the aura hit it, but then jumped down from the portal and landed in front of Herobrine, then bowed its head. Unlike the endermen, its eyes were still their normal shade of purple, which told me he hadn't taken control of it. Rather, he seemed to have manipulated the beast and convinced it to obey him. He began to laugh once more.

"At last… THE ENDERDRAGON IS MINE AT LONG LAST!" he bellowed triumphantly. I fell to my hands and knees, my vision fixated to the ground under me. My strength had just abandoned me completely. I couldn't believe we got so far just to lose like this. "Now, with the beast of the End, we will begin the final step of my plan to dominate the Overworld. We will eradicate the scourge of the Overworld that is humanity."

"Witanos, take her through the portal. Whether you spare or kill her is up to you. She is of no concern to me now…" The horseman nodded and pushed Alex past the enderdragon. I didn't look at her face. I couldn't.

"You… you are going to pay for this, Herobrine!" she yelled.

"Ha, foolish child, I have already won…" he jeered.

"You will pay-" she was cut off as the horseman pushed her into the portal. Then, I heard the portal activate as he jumped in as well.

"Now then. Skellian, I want you to return to the Overworld. Inform my army that I will be joining them with the dragon shortly." Herobrine ordered.

"Yes, my king." Skellian clattered as he went ahead jumped into the portal as well.

"You are free to leave until I am ready to return to the Overworld." Herobrine addressed the dragon. "I wish to have a moment with the so-called 'hero of humanity.'" The enderdragon let out a loud roar and took flight, leaving just him, me, and my pig, who was still trapped in the grip of a blank-eyed enderman.

Herobrine went in front of me and got down on his knee, looking smug. He chuckled internally, with a confident sneer.

"Oh Steven…" he said. "You really tried, didn't you? I must admit, I was not expecting you to get past Skulrein, but no matter. It worked out in the end for me, no pun intended." I looked up at him, my body filled with hatred.

"Release my pig." I growled. He smiled.

"Eh, why not? There's nothing a swine can do to help you in this situation." He glanced back at the enderman, and it dropped Joey and teleported away. Joey watched us, and I could see he was trembling. His face was filled with trepidation.

"I take it Skulrein told you my motives for bringing down the human race?" I said nothing. "Good. You see, I was their hero. I saved them during the Great Mob War so many centuries ago. Of course, I don't remember everything about that life, because losing most of the memories of your previous life is an unfortunate side effect of having to respawn. But, I know that I had wanted to help better mankind. However, the humans' king wouldn't hear me, and ordered a man-I believe you know him as the Great Hero-to execute me. I swore vengeance once I eventually respawned twenty years ago."

"People are a lot better than what they were back then…" I growled.

"Are they? I do believe your sister wouldn't agree with that notion. While you were living a peaceful and happy life in solitary, she was captured and forced into labor within a faction of griefers." My heart skipped a beat. I didn't want to believe it. But Alex seemed a lot more serious and defensive than she had been while we were teenagers.

"In the end, I was the hero of the Overworld and the destroyer of mankind. And you were nothing more than a silverfish standing in my way." He jeered.

"No… You're no hero. People can change. And I won't let you destroy their lives!" I shouted as I pushed myself back to my feet and drew my sword. Herobrine growled at the sight of the Sword of Heroes and jumped back.

"So, you will continue to fight, even after you have completely and hopelessly lost?" he questioned. I nodded and went into a battle stance, holding my sword arm in front of me and my other arm behind.

"Very well then. I do have to say that I have been waiting eagerly to do battle with the one destined to challenge me. Especially after what happened the first time we met." Herobrine sneered as he held both his hands out. A fire charge formed in each of them and blazed powerfully.

"I may have failed to stop you from controlling the enderdragon, but I will kill you before you can set it free into Minecraftia!" I declared, surprised at how confident I sounded. Herobrine closed his eyes and I could see a smile forming.

"Then, let this be the battle for the ages." Herobrine said as he went into his own battle stance, with his legs open and his arms held on opposite sides of him. He opened his eyes again, and they glowed even brighter than before. My mind went into battle mode, waiting for him to make the first move.

In an instant, he sprinted at me, faster than I would've thought possible. I instinctively ducked and somehow avoided a hit, but then I flew forward as he hit me from behind. As my body landed, I slid until I was stopped by a layer of the pale stone blocks. I groaned with pain, but got back up to my feet and faced him. How had he been able to go that fast? He had become a blur, it was as if he was under the potion effect of swiftness. And he had hit with the strength of an enderman. I wondered if he was actually under potion effects or if he was just that strong.

I heard Joey squeal a dozen blocks away, cheering me on. He was too afraid to join in the battle, and I preferred it that way. The last thing I wanted was for Herobrine to target him. A single hit from him would likely seriously hurt the pig.

Herobrine rushed at me again. Time seemed to slow down for me this time, and I could see all kinds of options of what I should do. I ducked under his fist, and then sidestepped his attack when he tried to attack from behind. Then, I swung my sword around in a circle and felt the blade bite against his body. Herobrine shouted in pain as he was knocked back, but used his hands to push himself off the ground and jump back on his feet, all in a single fluid motion. Clearly, he must've known martial arts very well.

"Ha ha! Yes! At last, I can feel it! The excitement of clashing against a worthy adversary! You certainly are different from the Steven I met a week ago! You're more determined and are motivated to fight for your friends. This must've been Notch's reasoning when he chose you!" he exclaimed as he raised his fist and created a fire charge. He then launched the charge at me as he let out a laugh of thrill, but I was quick to jump out of the way. I ran towards him and jumped, bringing the sword down onto him, but he disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

I could sense Herobrine's presence appear behind me and ducked under his fist, then quickly swung my sword up at him. He flashed red and was knocked upward slightly, then landed on the ground. I brought the Sword of Heroes down onto him, but he rolled to the side before the blade could hit him. Then, he got back to his feet and jumped up, disappearing from my sight completely.

I looked up and saw him falling towards me at an incredible speed with his fist raised. Instead of wondering how he managed to jump so high, I quickly turned and ran as fast as I could. I felt the ground shudder as he slammed his fist against it. The impact created an explosion that knocked me onto the ground. I could see blocks flying past me. I groaned as the upper half of my body, along with my feet, ached, while my legs were much less battered, thanks to the armor I did still have. I guessed my boots must've broke, leaving me with just my pants.

I quickly got back to my feet just as Herobrine jumped towards me from the crater he created. He turned his body sideways and landed a dropkick onto me, sending me flying until I struck an obsidian pillar. I was stunned, and everything became a blur.

Herobrine slowly walked up to me, chuckling to himself confidently. Then, he grabbed me by the bottom of my head, I tried to swing my sword at him, but he pinned my sword arm, and I was unable to move it. Herobrine began to lift me higher. I tried to pull his arm off my neck with my free arm, but it was no use. He was much stronger than I was, and in this position, I had no chance. I was forced to stare down into his cruel glowing white eyes. I was completely at his mercy.

All of a sudden, Joey came into sight and lunged at Herobrine, knocking him to the side. Herobrine lost his grip on me, and I fell onto my feet. I slammed the Sword of Heroes against him while he was down, causing his body to flash as he was knocked away. He slowly got to his feet, panting heavily. His thrilled expression was gone, suddenly replaced by a nervous look.

"Curses… I am still weak from teleporting into this world, even now…" he growled. "But I can't… allow you to defeat me…"

Herobrine ran at me, but I could see what he was going to do. I stepped out of the way of his dropkick, and swung my sword into an uppercut. The blade hit him again, and he fell back onto the ground with a cry of pain.

"This… this cannot be how it ends…" he stammered. "I've worked so hard, I can't be defeated here…" He tried to get up, but I slammed the Sword of Heroes against his side, knocking him back to the ground with a grunt of pain.

"No… I… will not accept this!" he snarled, panting heavily.

"Herobrine, this is for Howard's village!" I declared as I readied the legendary sword, and then I ran towards him. I jumped into the air, but right before I could finish him off with a downward slash, a roar erupted from behind me. I then saw massive black arms grab me by the shoulders and throw me away from Herobrine. I landed with a grunt far away from Herobrine and steadily got up.

Suddenly, the enderdragon landed right in front of me, and let loose a ferocious roar into the End sky. It looked enraged, and I watched as a purple liquid foam of some sort began to form in its mouth.

Unnerved, but still not willing to give up, I charged at the beast, concentrating on seeing what it would do before I attacked. The beast swung its huge arm at me, but I managed to stop myself before I got within range. Then, the beast raised its long neck and head as if charging for some kind of attack.

The dragon brought its head back down and fired a massive purple charge of some sort at me. I was quickly reminded of ghasts and slammed my sword against the charge, but found that instead of it being deflected, it exploded, covering me in a sour-smelling haze.

After a second, the haze began to burn into my flesh, and I tried to shout in pain, but couldn't breathe. I ran away from the purple haze as fast as I could. Soon, the sensation began to subside, and I could breathe again.

I ran back at the dragon and slashed my sword against its hide. It flashed red, but hardly even let out a pained grunt. The beast tried to crush me with its arm, but I jumped to the side and landed another hit. Then, the beast turned and swiftly swung its enormous tail around. The tail slammed against me and I lost my breath. I was sent flying high above the ground.

I could see that the End wasn't a sprawling landscape like I had thought it was. We were on a large landmass suspended in the End sky. And I was flying closer and closer to the edge of that landmass…

I began to cry out in fear. The edge came closer. If I missed it, I was doomed. I held my arms out and prayed for the best. When I felt myself no longer falling, I was filled with relief. My arms were also filled with the worst pain imaginable, and I could barely contain myself. The damage caused from landing instantly sapped me of most of my strength.

I opened my eyes and saw that I had barely managed to stop my descent. My arms were holding on to the edge. Below me, the End sky went on endlessly.

Feeling queasy, I struggled to lift myself over the edge, but I couldn't. I was already feeling weak from all this nonstop fighting, and that fall damage made it almost impossible to even hang onto the ledge. But, I was filled with relief when Joey ran over to me.

"Joey, you have to help me up… We need to finish this…" I told him. He nodded in agreement and raised his front leg for me to grasp. I grabbed onto his leg, and he began to pull back, planting his other front leg to the ground while he used his hind legs to push backwards. I cheered him on while he struggled.

The enderdragon landed with a thud behind Joey. My companion began to look back, but I told him to focus on lifting me, trying to keep him from panicking. And then, I watched as Herobrine jumped off the beast and approached us.

"My, my, my… How the tables have turned…" he sneered, still looking beat and worn out. "I almost thought that you were going to succeed in killing me, Steven." He went up to Joey and chuckled. I gritted my teeth.

"Don't you dare…" I growled. And then, Herobrine kicked Joey, knocking him off the ledge. Joey squealed in pure terror as he began to fall.

"NO!" I screamed as I threw my hand out, and managed to grab my partner by the scruff of his back just in time. Due to the combined weight of Joey and me, my other arm began to lose grip of the edge. I could see Herobrine standing over us, a mad sneer stretching across his face.

"Do you know what is down there? Below us lies the Void. I'm sure you may have heard of it. It is a realm of total chaos and complete oblivion. A plane of existence without existence. Everything that enters gets immediately destroyed. And now, you are seconds away from nothingness."

"You have lost. I have defeated the hero of humanity!" he laughed as he threw his face up towards the sky. "Your creator has failed you, along with the rest of mankind! At long last, I, Herobrine, have won!" Then, he looked back down at me. "Farewell, hero…"

And then, Herobrine kicked my hand off. I lost my grip on the ledge and we fell. We both cried out and screamed as we were falling.

 **Things just got dangerous. Have the curtains fallen for the new hero of humanity as he and his pig plunge down into the inescapable Void? Is mankind doomed to fall to Herobrine's genocidal ambitions? What can Alex do to stop him? The answers will come in Book Three, which will be uploaded next week.**


	20. Chapter 20: Trapped in the Void Lands

**Hey, I'm back with Book Three. But before we dive right into the story, I have an announcement to make. From here on, I plan to upload chapters weekly. They aren't gonna be coming out once a day anymore, because I gotta keep pace with the time it takes to type them up. That's all, hope you guys enjoy.**

 **Narration**

 _Herobrine had just knocked our hero and his pig off the edge of the End island. Steve and Joey cried out in terror as the two fell through the open void. The island soon vanished from sight, and pain unlike any other began to fill their bodies. They flashed red and held each other tight in their arms, though with each flash they grew weaker. If they were going to die after all they'd been through, it'd be together._

 _The pain was overwhelming, and Joey quickly passed out. But just as Steve was about to give in and perish, his body started to glow a golden hue. The Sword of Heroes resonated in his arms in response. His body no longer took damage, and the glow spread to his pig companion, sheltering the animal from death. He noticed this, but was too weak to consider what was happening. Steve then passed out, their bodies now safe._

 _The malicious dark fog of the Void tried to cover the hero and his partner and suck the life from them, but the glowing light of the hero repelled it, and they continued to plummet down, deeper than any thing had gone before._

 _And then, something new happened. The chaotic Void fog, which would always stop any creature that fell into the Void, began to lessen. A vast landscape appeared far below the unconscious hero and his sidekick. They continued to fall towards the newly-discovered surface within the Void, at a speed that would surely kill them both. But as they got closer to the ground, it became apparent that they were falling within proximity of a small black lake at the surface of this realm._

 _Our heroes soon landed in the body of murky water and sank deeper into the water, unconscious and unmoving. They were both now in danger of drowning, but their entry into this world had not gone unnoticed. A nearby mysterious girl, donning green clothes and a large green hat with eyes on it, noticed their descent and ran to their location, driven by curiosity._

 _She arrived at where she had seen them fall and jumped into the lake, where she quickly found them. Steve's eyes opened slightly and he groaned, though he could not hear himself as he realized that he was at the bottom of a impossibly cloudy lake. He began to panic, but then felt a pull on his arm as a young girl appeared from the murky water and grabbed ahold of him, pulling him up. He was afraid and filled with questions at the same time, but he kept his arm around his unconscious pig as she lifted him up. The girl brought them up to the surface of the lake and he gasped for air immediately. The two swam through the murky water and soon made it to the shore._

 **Steve's POV**

After we had made it to the shore and were on solid land, I set Joey's unconscious body on the ground. He was still breathing, which was great to see, but he was definitely going to be clonked out for some time. I held myself from the ground with my hands and knees and tried to slow my breathing. I was shaking all over, from both fear and tension.

Once I was able to regulate my breath, I got to my feet and put the Sword of Heroes away into my inventory. I opened my mouth to ask questions, but the young girl beat me to it.

"Oh my gosh! This is crazy!" she exclaimed while she bounced up and down. "I never thought I'd meet another person!"

My vision was finally clearing up, and I realized that she looked very different from other people. Her body was small, even for a child, and her head was massive. It was larger than mine even. She stood at around one and a half blocks in height. The girl had no schleras in her eyes, only dark blue pupils. She wore a green jacket and pink shorts, with green boots. On top of her head sat a large green hood with big eyes that looked like it was based of some kind of creature, but not any that I recognized.

"You fell from the sky, mister!" she said. "You must be very special!"

"Uh, thank you..." I said, unsure of how to react. Then, she jumped up again, with even more enthusiasm.

"Wow! You really are different from the rest of them!" I had no idea what she meant by that. Instead of wondering about that, I decided to ask her the question that was still largely on my mind.

"Where am I? What is this place?" I asked her, looking around.

The world around us was faintly covered in fog, and seemingly random parts of the landscape around us would light up for some unknown reason. From these lights, I was able to get somewhat of a read on the environment. The land seemed to stretch on endlessly, and I could see the fog hanging all across the sky, preventing me from seeing too far above us. I noticed that the ground layers that we stood on appeared to be made from a dark kind of block that appeared grey on the surface, but pitch-black everywhere else. Patches of dark grey grass sprouted out from the surface of some of them. I had never seen blocks like these before and briefly wondered if I could mine it, but reminded myself that now was not the time. The landscape almost looked somewhat like the Overworld, but without all the colors and if the Overworld was much, much darker.

"This is the Void lands!" she responded in a surprisingly cheery voice.

"The Void... lands?" I repeated with confusion. "But the Void doesn't have a bottom..."

"Of course it does. Where'd you think the Programmer would put his best work?" she said. Programmer? Work? I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Um... Well, anyways, what's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Rana! Mascot of the legendary Dockers! And I love animals! Little ones are the best!" she exclaimed. "What's your name, mister?"

"Well, my name's Steve. Steve Stonewall." I greeted, and she bounced up with more excitement.

"Oh! Another Steve! Wow, I can't believe that! And you have a pig too! It's been so long since I've seen one of those! Can I pet it?" I tried to answer that now wasn't an appropriate time for that, but she kept interrupting me.

"Pigs are so cute! I wish I had one! Anyways, you should meet my friends! I'm sure you'll get along with them! They're awesome! I can't wait for you to meet them!" While she was talking, I tried to recall everything that had happened. I had been fighting Herobrine, and then we almost defeated him. But then, the enderdragon attacked and knocked me to the edge of the island. After that, Herobrine pushed me off and we fell into the Void.

I tried to recall more. I remembered that once we had been on the verge of death, our bodies had begun to glow, and suddenly I didn't feel any more pain. Then, I assumed I passed out, and had woke up in that lake.

I realized that I had to find a way out of this place. We had been so close in defeating Herobrine. I couldn't let him recover. We had to somehow get back to the Overworld and stop him. But was that even possible? Was there a way out of this place?

"Um... Rana." I called. She looked back up at me.

"Yes?" she replied, the innocent look combined with her big face making her appear very cutesy and adorable.

"Do you know how I can get out of here? I need to return to the Overworld." I told her. She took on a look of confusion.

"The... Overworld?" Rana said. "Well, I don't know anything about that, but maybe Black Steve would know." I looked at her, trying to see if she was joking. But her face was serious now.

"Black... Steve?" I responded, confused.

"Yeah! Black Steve! He's so smart. He's like a teacher to us! We should go meet him!"

"Okay then..." I said and lifted my pig up, holding him with one arm. He was heavy, but not too heavy for me to carry.

I wasn't sure what I could do to wake Joey up. I felt really bad for the little guy, having been dragged into all this without any say. But I would be there for him when he did wake up.

Rana grabbed my free hand and began to pull me as she went along.

The land around us grew drastically darker as I noticed the fog in the horizon dimmed to the point that I could hardly see a thing, so I went into my inventory and pulled out a torch, then ignited it by using a nearby outcropping of blocks as a wall. The area around us was bathed in a circle of light, though I still couldn't see much around us in all the darkness.


	21. Chapter 21: The Dockers

_Fun Fact: Humans don't have fingers. The closest thing they have to them are the corners on their hands. So, when one character pokes at another, they're using the corner of their hand._

After a few minutes of navigating through the darkness, I began to see what looked like a camp settlement up ahead. Rana brought us into the settlement, where I could see four boxed structures made from what I immediately recognized to be oak wood planks, though I had no idea how the wood had gotten here. A fire sat in the center of the four buildings, except it looked weird. I realized that instead of being stationed on top of a block, the fire was bobbing up and down, as though it were an item. Then, I noticed that there were more fires that bobbed. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. Multiple fires were hovering above the ground, still burning without a source beneath them.

Out of curiosity, I took a step close to it. Then, one of the flames flew into my arm, burning fiercely. I panicked and threw it down, where it sizzled. When I looked back at my arm, I was surprised to see that it wasn't charred. I realized I hadn't felt any pain either while it had been in my hand. I slowly reached my hand out towards the flame, feeling nervous about what would happen. The flame went back into my hand instantly, and in that moment I closed my eyes, expecting a burn. But all I could feel in my hand was the warmth emanating from the flame. I inspected it with interest. I was actually physically holding fire, and it wasn't even hurting me. I gazed over to Rana, and saw her giving me a surprisingly normal look, as if this wasn't weird. I tossed the fire back towards the other flames, where it continued to float. When I looked over at Rana again, she brought both her arms up to the sides of her mouth and shouted.

"Hey guys! Guess what! You're never gonna guess what I found!" she shouted, her voice rang throughout the settlement.

"Rana, we've been through this already..." a young teen voice said as someone emerged from one of the huts. As he opened the door, it made a clacking sound that I was confused by. The door looked like a normal door, but the sound it made as he closed it was such a foreign one. But the weirdest part was that even though I was sure I never heard it before, it was a sound that I recognized. I had no idea when or how, but as I thought more about it, I became convinced that I had heard it before. I couldn't remember when though, which annoyed me.

"We don't want to attract more humans to us." And then he noticed me, and his jaw dropped. He quickly drew an iron sword. "Rana, get away from that human!" he yelled as he ran at me.

"Whoa!" I stammered and jumped back in time to avoid his swing. Then, I drew my own sword, planning to use it to block some of his attacks. "Why're you attacking me!?"

"They can talk now?!" the small person gasped.

"Wait!" Rana shouted as she ran to him and tried to grab his sword.

"Rana, let go! I'm trying to protect us! Do you remember the last time a human found us? It had friends and we barely got away!"

"But this human's different! And it has a name!" The boy slowly stopped struggling.

"What do you mean?" he asked cautiously as he eyed me. Rana looked over at me.

"Tell him!" she said.

"Oh, um... My name's Steve." His big head shot toward me and I could see a huge scowl upon hearing my name.

"Is... is this some kind of joke?" he questioned, but Rana shook her head, a smile still on her face. "Rana, if you're tricking me, I'll be so angry..." he said.

"Pranking you is what Beasty does." she reminded. His scowl didn't change.

"You do it too sometimes, Rana." he replied with annoyance. While they were bickering, I thought back to what he had said. He had called me a human, as if he wasn't. Did that mean that there were other humans down here? What would they be doing down here? And were they really as bad as he had said?

"Hey, what's with all the commotion? I'm trying to sleep..." Another person came out of their tent, yawning loudly. What surprised me was that unlike the others, his skin was bright green, somewhat like a creeper except it was more saturated. I could see traces of drool all over his green chin, as if he somehow didn't notice it when he woke up. He then saw me and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Is that another one of those humans?" he said in a teenage boy voice. Like Rana and the boy, his head was huge while his body was very small.

"Yes, but it's different, I think." Rana assured.

"Okay then..." the green person said casually. He struck me as a very carefree type of person.

"And apparently, its name is Steve..." the other boy said, his voice filled with skepticism. "Tell me that's not suspicious." The green boy went wide-eyed at this.

"Whoa, really dude?" Then, he chuckled. "That's pretty funny."

"I'm sure it is to you. Is this some prank you guys are pulling on me?" the first boy questioned.

"Nah dude. I don't know anything about this." the green person replied. I was starting to get frustrated. After all we had been through, we came so close to stopping Herobrine, and now I was down here. I had to find a way to get back to the End or Overworld right away!

"Look, I have to get back to the Overworld. I need to stop Herobrine before it's too late!" I said. At this, the first boy turned back to me.

"The Overworld? Are you saying you came from that place?" he asked, his voice still filled with caution. I nodded.

"Then, how come you look just like a human?" he interrogated.

"Because I am a human. But I'm not one of the ones you're talking about." I assured. He looked overwhelmed by the situation.

"This had better not be some kind of sick joke. I'm going to get Black Steve." he said. I wanted to see if he was serious, but he went into one of the wooden houses.

"So, welcome to our home!" Rana said, beaming towards me. "The person that rushed off, his name is also Steve!"

"Wait, really?" I replied, surprised at the odds of that. No wonder he was so suspicious. Rana nodded and then brought the green person closer. He sat on a block nearby.

"And this is Beast Boy, or as we like to call him, Beasty!" she introduced. Beast Boy held his hand up in a wave.

"S'up." he said casually. I decided to respond back with an awkward wave.

"Hey there."

Beast Boy's skin wasn't the only part of him that was green. His hair and eyes were dark green, though they were closer to black. He wore a shirt that was purple and black, and his pants continued with the black color scheme. He was also slightly taller than Rana.

"So, did the other humans, like, throw you out of their clan or something?" Beast Boy asked. I shook my head.

"I really don't know what you're talking about. All I know is that I was fighting a menace named Herobrine, and then he pushed me off the edge of the End island, and we fell down here." I informed.

"Yeah, I saw him fall. He landed in a lake." Rana said.

"Cool." He started to say something else, but was interrupted as Steve came out with another person.

This person had a dark skin color and light grey hair and eyes. He wore a red shirt and very short lime green pants, with a green sash the same shade over his shirt. The fashion statement was... interesting, to say the least.

"And this is the human you were talking about." the newcomer said. Steve nodded.

"It claims that it came from the Overworld." he informed. I started to feel uncomfortable that they kept referring to me as 'it.'

"That's interesting..." the other person mumbled.

"Oh!" Rana ran over to him and pointed at him with her arm. "And this is Black Steve!"

"Yes, that's my name." He spoke in a somewhat loud and authoritative voice, and sounded intellectual in the way he spoke.

Rana ran a block forward before falling to her knees and sliding across the ground while raising her arms up.

"Together, we are the Dockers! We are a ragtag team of adventurers that travel across the land with the goal of mapping out the entirety of the Void!" she declared.

"That's right." Black Steve said. "Now, why don't the three of you occupy yourselves? I'd like to talk with the human."

"Okay then." Steve responded and grabbed Rana and Beast Boy. He began to drag them off.

"Hey dude, you don't need to force me! I wasn't gonna stay anyways." Beast Boy protested, flailing his arms about before Steve let go of him. Beast Boy went back to his own wooden hut while Steve brought Rana to hers, then went into his own. Black Steve didn't start talking until his door closed with that unusually nostalgic sound.

"Is everything that Steve told me true?" he questioned. It took me a second to realize he was talking about the other Steve.

"Well, I don't know everything he told you..." I pointed out as I went to the nearest block and sat down, laying Joey in my lap. He was beginning to shift and move around, which was definitely a good sign.

"He said that your name was Steve, like his, and that you claim to have come from the Overworld." he explained as he came over and jumped up onto a nearby block, where he was finally able to reach my height.

"Yeah, those are true." I verified.

"I'm sorry that you were met with a lot of aggression when Rana brought you here. In case you don't already know, humans do live down here. And they look a lot like you. Whenever one finds us, they try to attack us. Sometimes they have friends with them, sometimes they don't." Black Steve explained.

"I'm confused though. Aren't you humans as well?" I asked.

"No, we're people." he specified. I blinked in confusion.

"But, aren't those the same." Black Steve shook his head.

"Where you come from, humans and people may be used as general terms to describe others, but down here, humans and people are different. Humans are as vicious as they come. They don't use weapons typically, unlike you, but if they come at you in a swarm, it's nearly impossible to get away." he informed. "They are brutal creatures. They attack with their fists, and will beat down anyone they see as an enemy." That sounded very different from how humans were in the Overworld.

"But anyways, so what brings you down here? How did you survive the fall? Nothing has ever made it through all that Void fog before." he pointed out. I was relieved to hear him imply that falling into the Void and surviving being unusual, but at the same time, it saddened me. We were alone in this realm, to some extent.

"I really don't know. All I know is that while we were falling, our bodies began to glow. Then, I blacked out and woke up at the bottom of a lake. That's when your friend Rana saved us." I recalled.

"I see... So, is that creature your friend?" he asked, gazing at Joey. I nodded.

"He's my best friend. I really feel bad with him being here. A pig belongs in the Overworld, not down here. Especially Joey..." I said.

"I haven't seen a pig in so long, I had forgotten what they looked like." he responded as he rubbed Joey's back, lost in thought. I turned to look at him.

"So, what's your story?" I questioned him.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I mean what're you four doing down in the Void?" I clarified. He looked across three of the huts before leaning in towards me.

"Well, a very long time ago, we used to live in the Overworld. But then, one day the Programmer brought us down here. We were some of the things that he didn't want in his world, and so he sealed us in the Void, along with the many other things he took out of his game." I raised my brow upon hearing him say game. What did he mean by that? A game like Hot Potato, or tag? But that didn't make any sense...

He sighed and sat down on the block, staring at the ground. "We were scrapped and forgotten, left to forever travel throughout this dark world."

"Wow... That's, uh, sad..." I said, feeling saddened by his words. No one should have to go through that.

"It's alright though. At least we have each other. Beast Boy's always telling jokes and being the jokester that he is, and Rana's always optimistic and cheering us up. Steve is still just as ambitious as he's always been. We also keep ourselves distracted by traveling. There's really nothing to back this up, but I like to think that once we successfully finish mapping up the entirety of the Void, maybe, just maybe the Programmer will arrive before us and bring us back up to the Overworld."

Joey let out an oink. Then, he quickly got up to his legs and looked up at me. His face filled with joy as he jumped and tackled me down. I let out a chuckle.

"It's good to see you too, Joey!" I said. Then, he saw Black Steve and grunted with confusion. "Hey Joey, it's okay. We're in the Void, but we aren't alone. There's others, and they're really good people." I told him, filling him in. Joey snorted, and then jumped out of my lap. He lowered himself to the surface of the block and got settled down by Black Steve.

"It looks like you two are good friends." Black Steve noted. I nodded.

"Yeah, we've been friends since I was eight." I informed.

"It must've been nice, getting to see the sun rise up every morning, and then the moon every night..." he muttered longingly.

"It's not that great. At night, monsters appear, and they hunt us. So every night, we have to stay in our homes until the morning." I pointed out, trying to downplay the Overworld.

"Still though, all that freedom." he murmured, but then straightened himself. "I'm sorry man. I'm probably making you uncomfortable with all my Overworld talk." he apologized.

"No, it's okay." I assured. "I just need to find the way out of here."

"I hate to say it, but I've got no clue. If I knew a way out of this place, we'd have been back in the Overworld a long time ago." he said, shooting down my final glimmer of hope. I sunk back.

"Oh..." I murmured. Joey, hearing the upset tone in my voice, let out a low snort.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out." Black Steve said as he looked at me. I looked back, but couldn't see any certainty within. I had a feeling he knew he wouldn't be able to keep that promise.

"Well, it's curfew. You should get some sleep. I can get you a bed, though the rest you'll have to do yourself." he informed. I nodded.

"I can do that." I assured.

"Okay then." He jumped off his block and headed to his house. I looked at Joey.

"I'm really happy that you're okay, Joey." I told him. He looked up at me and grinned.

"To be honest, I'm kind of glad you're with me right now... These people are so different from the people we've been with... I don't know how I'll be able to fit in. And what about Alex? I really hope Herobrine told the truth and that she's gonna be okay." Joey looked up at me, his face full of worry.

Black Steve came out of his house, carrying a red bed. When he came over, he handed it to me. I thanked him, and he went back to his hut to sleep for the night. I found a good place to build a temporary house and went into my inventory to retrieve some cobblestone. But as I went through it in my mind, I could also see three lines of letters in the mental projection of my inventory. The three read ATK, DEF, and SPD. What did they mean though? I decided to ignore it for now and pulled out some cobblestone.

The moment I placed a cobblestone block down, it instantly changed, though not that much. The texture changed so that the cobblestone's crevices were a lot more defined, and the stone chunks shined somewhat. Like with the door sound, I was hit with another sense of familiarity at the sight of this texture, though I was certain I had never seen it before. This confused me, but I decided not to think too much about it, as I was tired and it was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. And so, I got to work, placing the cobblestone blocks, thinking to myself while I built.

I couldn't believe how much I had changed after I had obtained the Sword of Heroes. Before, I didn't feel like I was heroic at all. In fact, I was a lot more cowardly. But once I felt the sword in my hands for the first time, I was hit with a sense of nostalgia. It was a sensation that I felt like I could faintly remember, but yet the answer as to why I felt that way continued to evade me. Thinking over it, I realized that I had felt the same when I heard that door open and close, and when I saw the altered texture of the cobblestone block just now. It was as if they were all linked in some way, but I couldn't think of how.

Once I finished the house, I stood back and looked at it. I would've loved to see a cobblestone house similar to the one I used to live in, but this one just looked... broken. It looked like the cobblestone blocks were barely able to hold each other up with how fractured each block looked.

Joey followed me as I went inside. I had no door, but at least I didn't need to worry about leaving it open. I considered closing it up with blocks, but decided that would be rude if someone wanted to enter.

Once I placed the bed down, I collapsed down onto it. Then, I placed a wool block right next to the bed for Joey to settle down at, but it immediately changed into black block with the grey surface, as if the ground had reached up and sucked the essence from it.

"Well, I guess you can sleep on the bed then..." I told him. He happily jumped up onto the foot of the bed and laid down. I laid back and thought about all the events that had unfolded just today.

First, I had to walk through my childhood home for the first time in over a decade. Second, we had to navigate through a stronghold that we never even knew we had lived above when we were kids. Then, I obtained the one weapon supposedly capable of killing Herobrine and had to fight off Skulrein when it had just been me and my pig on our own. After that, we went into the End and I had been forced to resurrect the enderdragon. Once that happened, we fought against Herobrine and the dragon, but we had ultimately lost. Finally, we fell into the Void and somehow survived the fall.

So many things happened. I wasn't sure if it had all been in the same day, but it ended with two intense fights and a fall. And I was exhausted. I didn't know if we truly were stuck down here. I wanted to believe that us surviving the fall hadn't been for nothing. I still wanted to believe that there was a way out of this world. But for now, I needed the sleep. And after a moment, I went into a deep slumber.

 _I dreamed that I was listening to a conversation between two voices._

 _'He almost managed to stop the White-Eyed One...' one of the voices said._

 _'Yes, even I had thought he was going to succeed...' the other mused._

 _'I'm sure that caught anyone who was watching the scene by surprise...' the first said with a slight chuckle. I wasn't sure what they could have been referring to, since there had only been three of us there._

 _'And what is even more shocking is that the human survived the fall into the Void...' noted the second._

 _'Yes, though we already knew that was going to happen. He is mankind's chosen hero, after all...' the first voice reminded._

 _'The only one who will have seen the Void for what it really is and potentially live to tell the tale...' the second agreed. I began to hear a distorted sound as my vision twisted with static, as though some outside force was trying to interfere with this dream._

 _'Oh dear, it seems that the darkness is trying to prematurely end our message to the hero...' the second voice pointed out._

 _'Then we should get straight to the point...' replied the first one._

 _'Yes. Hero, you are trapped in a world filled with all the mistakes of the Creator...' informed the second voice._

 _'A world that contains all things the Creator has removed or kept unused remain...' the first voice added. My dream began to receive more interference, both audibly and visibly. I could no longer tell the two voices apart._

 _'In order to find the way out of this world ruled by darkness, you must search for the palace of lost hope...'_

 _'From there, you need to confront the lord of chaos...'_

 _'Good luck, hero, and watch out for the ruler of this cold, evil realm, for he is-'_

 _The dream then changed as the distorted noise I kept hearing began to sound like unnerving laughter. I could see a face staring back at me in the blackness. It grew larger. It had two eyes and a wide, gaping mouth, but no nose._

 _"-THE MOST POWERFUL BEING THAT EVER LIVED!" the face declared, with its evil sneer. I grew terrified, even though my emotions were outside my control._

 _"So, I see that a creature has somehow fallen past my impenetrable Void fog..._ _ **:D**_ _" Its voice was incredibly raspy. It felt like I was listening to a voice that embodied the screeching of a stone sword sliding against an iron block. It hurt to listen to, but I couldn't tune it out._

 _"I'll offer you a deal, puny mortal... Come to my palace. Listen to those foolish voices of the story. Challenge me, and, if you win, I will return you home. But if you fail, no matter. I'll simply take great joy in tearing you to particles myself!" he hissed. I briefly saw in the darkness the image of a massive pyramid before the image was swallowed by the darkness._

 _"Come to me, little silverfish... Come to me and_ _ **die :D**_ _" My vision trembled as the dream vision faded into obscurity, its face the last thing I could see._

 **Well, that's unnerving. I wonder who this new antagonist is gonna be(no I'm not, but hopefully you are). And as for this team of adventurers, I'm sure some of you may have noticed, they're some of the old characters that were added into Minecraft** _ **way**_ **far back for a short time before being removed from the game. This was before Minecraft was even released into 1.0! I guess we know what happened to them once they were removed now(at least in this story's universe).**


	22. Chapter 22: Escape from the Horseman

**Alex's POV**

I felt my body vanish before traveling through dimensions and then rematerializing as I flew out of the enderportal, grunting as I landed on the stonebrick ground.

Upon regaining my senses, I realized that I was back in the stronghold. Unusually enough, all the silverfish that had attacked us before we entered the portal were gone. Much of the chamber was still destroyed from when the silverfish had emerged. I heard the sound of the portal in use and then a rattle as one of the horsemen landed behind me.

Overcome by blind anger, I didn't wait to process any consequence. I got to my feet quickly and brought out an axe, swinging it as fast as I could at the horseman. But just as quickly, I heard a clang as he blocked it with his sword. I realized it was Witanos that I had attacked, but I couldn't see the other horseman yet. He must've still been in the End. At a speed faster than my eyes could follow, the horseman used his sword to pull the underside of the axe blade, and yanked it out of my hand. The weapon went flying across the room until it hit the stonebrick walls and fell into lava that was spilling out from its pool.

In desperation, I yelled and charged at him, which in hindsight wasn't a good idea. He hit me with a powerful kick, and I fell backwards into a hole in the ground, my back striking hard against the edge of a stonebrick block. My back flared up with aching pain, and I immediately knew that if I lived past this, I was going to have back pains for a long time.

"Give it up, pathetic girl. I have trained with Herobrine for decades. Did you really believe you could stand a chance against me?" Witanos mocked. I growled and slowly got back to my feet, then jumped out of the hole. My back throbbed with pain, and without thinking I brought one of my arms behind me to support it.

"I see you have sustained an injury to your back." Witanos noted with an eerie skeletal smile, noticing my tell of weakness. He then raised his diamond sword. "That will make this much easier." I held my other hand over my face. For the first time in a while, I was terrified instead of unnerved.

Just when he was about to swing, the chamber vibrated as I heard the sound of the portal in use once again. Another skeletal rattle echoed through the air as the other horseman landed.

"Skellian? You left so soon." Witanos clattered, stopping himself. Skellian looked over at him, only acknowledging me with a distasteful glance. He kept his hands behind his back and stood up straight, having the air of a general.

"Yes. King Herobrine has dismissed me so that I can announce the revival and arrival of the beast to our forces." Skellian informed.

"Has he killed the hero?" Witanos questioned. The other horseman shook his head.

"He did not before I went through the portal."

"Well, is he okay?! That human possesses the one weapon capable of striking him down!" Witanos rattled. I knew I was trapped. If I chose to attack either of them while they were talking, they would destroy me in no time. And if I tried to run, I wasn't sure I'd be able to outrun both of them if they went after me.

"I am not concerned. Remember, our king is nearly unstoppable in combat. And even if the human does somehow manage to hurt him, the dragon would tear him to particles in an instant." Skellian assured. "Our lord is not a foolish man, he knows that he cannot lose."

"Hmm... Very well then. Be on your way." Witanos said. Skellian nodded and went ahead, pushing me aside with little effort before disappearing into the darkness.

Witanos glared back at me. Though he only had eye sockets, I could see a destructive desire burning within them. He pointed his sword at me, but didn't raise it.

"Petty girl, I want nothing more than to reduce you to particles right now. But I have elected to allow you a chance of escape, even if it is miniscule. Us horsemen of the apocalypse do enjoy the hunting of prey. If you can return to the surface, I will not seek you out any further." He then put on another unnerving sneer. "You have ten seconds to run."

The horseman began to count down from ten. I didn't know what to say, but knew that this was my best chance. Immediately, I turned and bolted away as fast as I could, the pain from my back killing me as I listened to his disturbingly eager hallow voice echo throughout the stronghold, ending with his declaration of the time running out.

I had no idea how much time had passed. It could've been several seconds, it could've been several minutes. All I knew was that I couldn't hear the horseman anywhere. Fortunately, when Steve and I had first gone through the stronghold, we had lit it up pretty well, so I ran into almost no mobs. I did come across many bats though, and some of them startled me, but there was no sign of the horseman. All that managed to do was make me even more paranoid though.

My back was killing me. I knew I needed to find a place to take shelter, if only for a few short moments. I could see a stray cavern up ahead that was pitch dark, but was afraid of trying to hide in the darkness. For all I knew, the horseman could be there, watching me and waiting for me to come close before attacking me. I shivered at the thought of that, and I ran down another corridor. Then, I approached the wall and brought out my wooden pickaxe, and proceeded to mine through it.

Once I had broken through two blocks, I stepped into the space and placed down one of the stonebrick blocks I had picked up, instantly being cast into darkness once I placed the second.

Feeling safe despite the darkness for the first time in a while, I felt my stomach growl with hunger. I took this time to bring out a couple loaves of bread and quickly scarfed them down, not even taking the time to taste them. Right now, all they did was serve to give me sustenance and keep me going.

Once I was done eating, my body began to feel a little better, but my back was still aching. I took a few deep breaths to keep my composure and began to come up with a plan.

Witanos clearly wanted to hunt me down. He promised that he wouldn't continue to seek me out if I managed to return to the surface. I assumed that meant that even if I managed to escape the stronghold, I wouldn't be safe, since I would still be underground. That would've been a bad assumption to have if I hadn't taken the time to think.

I knew that my best method of exploring safely would be to save my pickaxe the best I could and only mine into the walls if I felt I was being watched or approached. Before that, I would need to move away until the feeling would subside, so if I was being watched, he wouldn't know where I had gone.

I began to hear the clatter of skeletal footsteps. They were coming from the far end of the corridor I had been in. I held my breath as they continued, and heard Witanos's excited voice ring out.

"Where are you, girl? Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you..." he called out. I bit my lip in anxiety. My heart was beating out rapidly in response to my fear. _You just told me you were going to hunt me and kill me, and now you're saying you won't_ , I mentally shouted, _You really think I'm gonna believe you now?_

His footsteps finally began to pass. After a few seconds, I couldn't hear them anymore. But to be sure, I waited another minute before I exhaled deeply. Then, I began to gather my thoughts.

All of a sudden, pain rocketed throughout my body as a massive explosive devastated everything around me. My vision was blurry, and I could barely hear anything around me. Standing at the edge of the crater I was now in was Witanos, tossing a small block of tnt in his hand. A sneer was plastered across his dark skull. I realized that the entire hallway had been lined with craters and realized that he had set TNT along the hall and waited to see which part I had used as a hiding place.

"Thought you could hide from me, didn't you? How pitiful..." he taunted as he jumped down in front of me and seized me by the neck. I could feel myself flailing around as he lifted me up a few blocks into the air. I tried desperately to hit him, but he was unbothered by my hits.

"You tried, I'll give you that. But you can't block me away." He brought me closer to his face, and in the light he looked almost like the vicious enderman that had abducted me years ago. "I am the shadow that snuffs out the lives of those who challenge my king. And you will be another one of my victims. Now, goodbye..." he said as he brought his sword back, preparing to impale my body with it. I went through my inventory as fast as I could and brought out my iron sword. I let out a yell of defiance that came out more as a gurgle and stabbed the sword into his ribcage. He immediately lost his grip on me and staggered backwards, causing me to let go of the sword as I fell.

I got back to my feet as fast as I could manage, then turned and ran down the hallway, leaving him with the iron sword stuck in his ribs as he yelled angrily at me and began to give chase.

My mind was on flight mode. I couldn't see anything in the rooms or the lights. I could only see the walls and holes in the ground. My back wasn't even hurting. I was focused on one thing and one thing only-to escape.

I could hear him shouting as he pursued me. It sounded like he was right behind me. Quickly, I pulled out a random set of blocks, not even taking the time to find out what they were, and waited until I ran through an open iron door before placing it in front of the door in order to slow him down. Then, I continued to sprint, searching for any area that may have resembled the exit.

I came across a hall was both parts of the stronghold and a mineshaft. I ran past it, ignoring it as it was unfamiliar and not lit up.

As I turned my head to look behind me, I heard a hiss to my left. I looked left just as a creeper emerged from a dark corridor and swelled up next to me. Quickly, I strafed to the right wall and held my arm up to protect the side of my body as it detonated, forming a big crater in the corridor intersection. The impact launched me forward into a room until I landed in a fountain in the center of said room. I was instantly soaked.

Just then, Witanos entered the room from a second entrance, looking very angry. I could see my iron sword was stuck in his ribs. I scrambled to get out of the fountain, but he grabbed me by the back of the head and threw me against the wall. I cried out in pain from the impact.

"You are starting to get on my nerves, girl!" he clattered. I got onto one knee, panting heavily. I was tired of being scared of this skeleton. I hated feeling powerless. And if I was going to die here, I wasn't going down without a fight.

"I'm done with being afraid! I refuse to remain a victim to your tormenting, skeleton." I declared and pulled out my bow. I immediately nocked an arrow. "This won't go the way you think it will." I promised, putting on a determined face. His bony face grew a smile.

"Is that what you think? How cute... The prey seeks to fight back!" he mocked.

We stared at each other, waiting for someone to make a move. Then, I let my first arrow fly, and swiftly readied a second. He raised his sword and deflected the projectile with ease. Witanos lunged at me, his diamond blade gleaming and ready to kill. I managed to jump away as he stabbed his sword at where I had been just before, the force of the impact so great that the sword was wedged into the newly-formed fissures within the stone blocks. Witanos began to struggle with pulling the weapon out of the block, and I took this as an opportunity, putting away my arrow and running over to the skeleton.

I grabbed ahold of my weapon's hilt and pulled as hard as I could until the blade was freed from the horseman's ribs, breaking off one of them in the process, which brought out a clatter from the horseman. Then, I swung the sword at Witanos several times before he managed to remove his sword.

With a roar of anger, the horseman slammed his arm against my chest, and I cried out in pain and fell back.

"You can't defeat me, girl... I am a horseman of the apocalypse!" Witanos declared egotistically.

"You think I'm afraid!? I went through hell back when I was captured by a faction of griefers!" I countered as I jumped back up. I had been afraid of Witanos because I had no idea what to expect if he had caught me, but now I was learning more about his style of fighting. He seemed to use intimidation to terrify his enemies before taking them out with brute force. But I was fast and small and nimble compared to him, and I wasn't scared anymore at the prospect of dying.

"You boast, but you are just a human. And humans are weak." he shouted. "All these hits you have landed, I can't feel any of them! Us horsemen were created to be unstoppable to the mortal blade!"

I waited for him to make a move this time. After a few seconds, he jumped at me and swung his sword down. I went into a sideroll just in time to avoid the hit. I was able to feel the wind from the sword passing right by my face. Then, with my bow in my off-hand and my sword in my right hand, I slammed the blade against the back of his spine. I tried to swing again, but his sword struck my legs and swept me off my feet. I yelled in pain and narrowly managed to stop myself from faceplanting onto the ground with my arms.

Witanos kicked me back. I groaned and tried to get back up, but flashed red with pain from the horseman's Wither Effect and sank. Come on, Alex! my mind exclaimed, You've been through so much, you can't go down here! My body flashed red again. Witanos looked angry.

"This fight has gone on long enough. I must return to the surface in preparation for the war." He went over to me and then sat on my waist, effectively pinning me down. I struggled and resisted as much as I could, but I was trapped. The horseman raised his sword above me. "It is time to end this..."

Witanos began to lower his sword, with a skeletal grin plastered across his face. I grabbed his arms and pushed back with what strength I had. I gave it everything I could, but his arms barely slowed. His blade came closer and closer to my chest.

Just as I was about to get impaled, I heard an angry roar and something slammed against Witanos, knocking him off of me with a startled rattle. I saw Howard standing in front of me, his axe out and ready. His red eyes were filled with anger, but something else was in them as well-determination.

"H-Howard?" I stammered, my voice sounding much weaker than I wanted it to sound. He came over to me and lowered his free arm. I smiled slightly and grabbed ahold of it, and he lifted me up with strength that surprised me. I looked over at the horseman.

Witanos got back up, and I could physically see fire in his eyes. In the moment, I wondered if that was a Wither skeleton thing, but that thought quickly went away.

"You were the one that dared to challenge me back at the caverns underneath that other village!" he clattered angrily at the sight of Howard. Howard nodded and held his axe out aggressively.

"Yeah, and you're the monster that I am going to kill." he growled. The skeletal horseman let out a series of low-pitched rattles.

"Why you..." He began to walk forward, but then stopped in his tracks. His head was raised slightly, as if he was listening to something. A moment later, he looked back at us.

"You two are incredibly lucky that my king has ordered the four of us horsemen back into the Nether immediately." he rattled with disdain as he turned his back to us, facing an exit. "Next time we meet, I will DESTROY you two..."

"I swear to Notch Almighty that you will not be successful..." Howard growled with solid resolution.

"You will not be able to keep that vow..." Witanos insisted, and then left the room, disappearing from sight.

"We need to go after-" I fell once I tried to step forward, but Howard caught me just in time. My back, and now my ankles were in great pain.

"Alex, you're too hurt." he said.

"But that was the best chance we had to defeat him..." I stammered.

"Believe me... I want to go after him. I want nothing more than to kill him. But I'm not even sure if that's possible right now." he pointed out. I thought back to what Witanos had said while we were fighting, Us horsemen were created to be unstoppable to the mortal blade! Was he telling the truth? Had I even dealt any damage to him?

"Well... thanks for the rescue..." I told him. His face darkened.

"I didn't plan to come back. I just couldn't find the way out of this place." he pointed out. "But when I saw that you were struggling against that monster, I couldn't just not help you." While he talked, I brought out more bread to consume. As I ate, my body began to heal more.

"Look, Howard... I'm sorry for the way I acted around you." I apologized after I finished off one loaf.

"You should be. I've been through so much for the past two weeks, and the way you treated me was horrible." he replied, a permanent scowl on his face. "You have no idea how much trauma I've had, how I have been emotionally tormented. And I'm not going to be one of those people that are like, well, you apologized, so it's all good, because it's not."

"Look, you're not the only one that has trauma. Just a few years ago, I got... well, I was forced to work for very, very bad people. Since then, I've come to resent people." I explained. "I'm not going to justify the way I treated you. It was horrible, and I wish I did things differently. I just want to move past that." We were both silent for a long moment. Then, he spoke up.

"Where is Steve and the pig?" he asked.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you about it while we're looking for the exit." I assured.

"Well, what're we waiting for then?" he asked. I put away both of my weapons and lifted one of my arms. He put it around his shoulders to help support me. Then, we steadily moved on.

 **Herobrine's POV**

After I sent the message out to my horsemen and sent the dragon through the portal with orders to follow Skellian, I summoned the endermen that had fallen under my control. I required them to bring me directly into my fortress in the Nether. If I tried to return using my own power, I was afraid that the consequences would be fatal. And that fight with the hero had not helped at all. I had to be extremely cautious from this point on. Even though the only weapon capable of harming me was now destroyed, I could still work myself to death if I overexerted my energy.

The endermen appeared before me, staring at me with their blank gazes as they awaited orders. The amount of effort they would be using to transport me would undoubtedly kill them, but with no hero left to oppose me, they had served their purpose.

"Endermen. I order you to come together around me and use your amplified powers of teleportation to transcend worlds and bring me to my fortress within the Nether." I announced.

All at once, the mobs of the End crowded around me and touched me with their slender arms before combining their powers to send me on my way. My conscience faded as I traveled between worlds.

 _I experienced a voice talking to me. The voice was one I was completely unfamiliar with._

 _'Your world is not what you think it is...' the voice said._

 _"What?" Silence... "What do you mean?" I asked again, but there was more silence. "Answer me, voice!" I demanded._

 _'Seek out the Command Block. Only then can you discover the truth...' it responded._

 _"Command Block? What are you talking about?" I questioned._

 _'Head to the Far Lands. Then, everything will become clear...' it said. I was starting to get angry._

 _"You tell me to stray from my path and search for an object I have never heard of. You try to make me question the world as I know it. And yet, when I request for you to specify your meaning, you don't. How dare you-"_

 _'The hero lives...' the voice revealed in a whisper. My heart skipped a beat and my eyes widened._

 _"What? But that's not possible! How could he survive a fall into the Void!" I shouted, but my sight blurred as my conscience awakened again._

I woke up in the throne of my fortress. That voice, whatever it was, had filled me with such doubt in only a few statements. If that wretched hero wannabe was still alive, even after I had watched him fall into the Void, this could be very bad. I wasn't sure what the voice was insinuating by stating that Steven was still alive. Could he still be in the End? Or in the Overworld? I had no idea where even to look, and my biggest concern was that he would appear out of nowhere and challenge me again. I needed to train myself in case such a scenario were to ever unfold. After our duel, I realized that I had been lacking greatly on my performance in battle.

But most important was this strangely named block, I had to find it. But to locate its whereabouts, I first needed to go to these Far Lands. I began to plan.

 **Alright, there we go. Now things are changing up for our protagonists and antagonist. Things begin to change as this strange voice reveals things to Herobrine that are shocking, and now Alex and Howard must work together and find out what they should do next. Don't forget to leave a review telling me what you think overall. Believe me, your reviews are very motivating to a writer like myself, especially whenever they're constructive and positive.**


	23. Notice: A Hero's Hope is on hiatus

**Hey guys, I wanted to give you all an update as to why there hasn't been anything in AGES. First off, it's been way too long since I posted a chapter, and the reason for that is because for the past month and a half, I've been going through some serious stuff irl. Like, pretty rough stuff. I wanted to say that because of personal things, I haven't been able to work on my story, and I've had very limited access to a computer with internet. So, as of right now, the story is on hiatus.**

 **I know a bunch of you guys are probably thinking, 'Does that mean we'll never get to read more of the story?' and right now I can't give any promises other than that I will do everything I can to work things out. It's just REALLY hard to focus on my story as of lately. And whenever I do write something, I've just been very dissatisfied with how it is. I guess you could say I really don't know what to do for the next few chapters. I've already got the full general storyline down, just not all the details of how this character gets from Point A to Point B. It's funny, because the truth is I've already written the entire thing once before, but that was years ago and I decided to rewrite it because my mindset and the quality of the story had changed a lot during that time.**

 **I'm trying really hard to find the time to focus on my story, but it's been tough because of the stress of irl, but if you guys really want to stay in touch with the story, I highly recommend you set up an alert. I hate to be THAT guy, but that's really the only thing I can offer you guys. Sorry if I let anyone down, I know a lot of you were really invested in the story and I hate that it just stopped as abruptly as it did.**


	24. The End of Times, also an Invitation

**Hey guys, it's been awhile again, huh? Well, unfortunately, I hate to say it, but I've finished with writing the book series. I know, it was a really good story. It's not just unsatisfying, it's awful for some of you. Me too, I wanted to keep writing _so_ badly. But at that point, it just felt like I was dragging a dead carcass(sorry for the morbid comparison). A Hero's Hope is where my story's always started. It was the first story out of a planned ten series. I even planned to make a sequel where the antagonists were Entity 303 and Null. But unfortunately, I just couldn't make myself keep writing. I won't do the easy thing that some other writers do and spoil the entire series though, out of respect. I'll just say that Steve eventually manages to escape the Void.**

 **And one more thing, I also wanted to give an invitation to you guys to a new story that I'm writing. It's called A Hero's Path, and it stars a nine year old young boy named David who lives in a humble town called Blockfield. He is about to attend a newly-built school when a Wither attacks his home village. Soon after the chaos ends as the Wither is chased off, his friends decide to head off to Diamond City to seek out help, so he goes along to help them. But then, he and his friends soon discover that there may be more to this Wither than they could have realized.**

 **Despite A Hero's Hope and its sequel not being written, the general events that took place in them still happen in the Minecraftian timeline. You guys just won't know about all of them. This series, unlike A Hero's Hope, is something I've truly been excited to write about. I think that it would really be rewarding for those of you who are interested in it. Here is the link to the very first chapter:** www fanfiction net/s/13287852/1/A-Hero-s-Path

 **Don't worry, even without the dots in the link, it'll still direct you to the first chapter if you use Google.**

 **I'm really sorry for those of you that enjoyed A Hero's Hope. I did too, when I was writing it the first time. And then when I finished it, it felt amazing, seeing Steve change from a cowardly individual into a great hero. But when I went back through it, it no longer became a series that I saw joy in creating, because I had already created everything I wanted in the story. It basically felt like going on a date with a person you're not attracted to, but hoping that during the date you'll start to develop feelings for them(which usually doesn't work). And it's not like I can just post the old version, because it was written back when I had the idea to make the series, basically, all about mods. Yeah, that was a thing. Steve would fight off against mutant creatures from the Mutant Creatures mod and the Hydra from Twilight Forest, and Herobrine was much more of a spectral being who also had control of the King from the Orespawn mod. Jeb was also a character, but I was unsatisfied with him and what he provided for the story, so when I decided to rewrite the story, I left him out of the series. Eventually, I decided I didn't want to write a story about mods because it heavily overshadowed the things Minecraft _itself_ could offer. Zombies and creepers practically never even appeared in the first version, because I replaced them with these cool and flashy modded mobs. It just didn't feel like a story I could be proud of.**

 **I also had this side-main character named Stephanie, who was meant to be a female version of Steve and was planned to be his love interest, but then Alex was revealed to be coming for 1.7(yes, I wrote this story a long time ago), and soon after I added Alex to the story, Stephanie just faded from the storyline(this was back when I was having trouble deciding which role I wanted Alex to play: love interest or sister, I eventually went with sister, but I still removed Stephanie because the group was getting too large).**

 **Well, that's all I wanted to say to you guys. I hope some of you decide to check A Hero's Path out, because I know it is something that you might like if you enjoyed The Struggle For Survival. I'm sorry it came to this, but hopefully I can make it up to you guys with a new, and an even better story!**


	25. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 1

**After looking through boxes, I found a disk that I had put my original story in years ago. After saving a back-up to the disk, I never touched it again, until now. The disk contains the first eight files of the original storyline that I was going for when I began writing A Hero's Hope. Yes, files, not chapters. You see, when I started writing, I would write the story on an electronic device my school gave to me to take notes(I was a rebel lol), called an AlphaSmart. For those who don't know, an AlphaSmart is basically an electronic notebook that has eight files of space that can hold tens of thousands of words each. I saved the story to the disk on May 14th, 2014-just over five years ago. The files you're about to read have only been slightly edited. Nothing story-wise, nor aesthetically, just unnecessary notes from me to myself to remember, and separating each paragraph and chapter to make it easier for you guys to spend time to read it(otherwise each file would be massive and bunched up and would take a long time to read). This story is from the time when I only planned to make A Hero's Hope and a sequel to it, well before I had the idea of a massive timeline with nearly a dozen possible series to follow. I hope you enjoy the story from a much simpler time. Just remember that nothing from this story is canon to the Minecraftian timeline, and all reoccurring events and characters in this story were basically the beta versions of the actual concepts of events and characters that would appear later on in the current version and other series. For example, in the original version, the Great Diamond War took place ten years before the events of this story, while in the current version it took place much earlier on. Another example is Emily, who was initially planned to be Steve's sister in the original, but she became her own character in The Hero's Path, my other series that takes place long after the events of A Hero's Hope.**

Minecraft Fanfiction A Hero's Hope (Inspired by the Minecraft fanfiction, Hero's Bane)  
By Jonathan White/Link_Rulz_Hyrule  
Author's note: This is my first fanfic so hopefully you like it. If you don't, please don't flame. This is in Hardcore Mode. If Steve dies once, Game Over. Unless a certain god interferes... which is highly unlikely.  
Chapter 1 A Typical Day...

It was a typical day here in Minecraftia, well, as typical as a day can get. Steve woke up to the sounds of chickens clucking and cows mooing and so on.  
Steve got out of bed and looked out the window. He could see the beautiful block sunrise. He also could see the mobs of the night slowly burning to smoke. Steve never understood why mobs turn into smoke upon death. It just always seemed to happen.

Steve was just about to turn away when he noticed something strange. Then he looked back at it. It appeared to be a figure in blue staring back at him. He blinked, then he opened his eyes and it was gone, replaced by smoke. Steve shrugged, it was probably just a zombie that burned to death. He hadn't seen anyone except for... Emily... since 'that night' 10 years ago.

Steve walked away from his window over to his food chest. He helped himself to a cooked chicken for breakfast. While Steve was eating, he wondered what he was going to do today. He could try mining, that would get him some resources he needed to defend himself. Or Steve could explore the nearby areas. He might even find a temple. Or Steve could hunt for game and breed some animals or do some farming. Then, he decided what he was going to do today.  
When he was finished, Steve went outside and looked at his house. It was fairly large and was right at the border of a desert biome. And it looked out to a forest biome. It was made out of cobblestone, oak and dark oak wood, with the wood for the roof and cobblestone for the walls. All though it wasn't the perfect house, Steve was proud of what he had made a while ago.

Steve looked up at the sun again. An hour had passed. He set off, ready for any form of danger with his iron sword in hand. Even in the morning, it was still very dangerous as there still were creepers, spiders, witches and endermen on the prowl.

Steve set out, after deciding he was going to explore the nearby forest. He wasn't too afraid of the spiders and creepers as he had a full set of iron armor. He had packed three stone axes just in case he wanted to chop down a bunch of trees. Plus, he had a feeling he'd need them. Steve had just passed his first tree when he heard a spider. 'It's okay, spiders won't hurt me if I don't hurt them' he thought to himself. It was true, at least if it was bright enough. Sure enough, there was a spider perched on top of another tree staring down at him, but not attacking him. 'Let's hope there's a jungle biome nearby,' Steve thought to himself, 'if so, maybe I'll find ocelots or even better, a jungle temple.'

After passing about 100 blocks, Steve came across his first creeper. He passed a tree that was larger than most others and ran right into a creeper, literally.  
It seemed just as surprised as him, Steve saw it in its eyes. He was so surprised, he was stunned for a second.

"That's a very nice life you have there..." the creeper said in that redstone blood-chilling low-pitched voice every creeper has once it snapped out of its shock, "it'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it." Then, it started to enlarge and hiss, which meant one thing, it was going to explode.

Steve knew it would blow up before he could kill it. So he did the natural Minecraftian thing, he ran.  
Sssssssss... BOOM!

The creeper blew up at a dangerously close distance to him and would've wounded him, but just in nick of time, Steve crossed his sword over his back to block some of blast. But it still was enough to knock him off his feet onto the dirt.

"PHLAAAA!" Steve spat out the dirt and grass in his mouth. Then, he got up and brushed himself off. 'How long had I been here?' Steve looked up for the sun, only to see nothing but bark and leaves.

"Oh dang it! I must have wandered into a roofed forest biome!" Sure enough, Steve looked to his right and saw a giant mushroom protruding from the ground like a tree. Those only grew in roofed forests and the fabled mushroom biome. No wonder the creeper was here. Roofed forests were so dark mobs loved to roam around them, even in the day. Creepers normally retreated back into underground caves this late in the day in most other biomes as they were normally nocturnal.

After traveling for what seemed like hours, Steve finally found a exit from the roofed forest. When he reached the exit, he stumbled upon a plains biome where he could see the sun.

"HOLY NOTCH!" The sun was hovering about 1/4 from the horizon. He had spent about three-fourths of the day wandering aimlessly through the forest! He wouldn't have enough time to make it home. 'Looks like I'll just have to take a stand here till tomorrow morning.' Then, Steve ran to climb the one mountain he could see which was luckily close by.

When the night came, Steve was ready. All of a sudden, his stomach growled. He never noticed just how hungry he was and he collapsed from the hunger. It felt like an iron block was weighing down at his stomach. Steve was starving to death! 'Not now! Not now! Not at night!' Steve thought as he rummaged through his bag for food. Finally, he found what felt like a couple of cooked porkchops.

He took them out and sure enough, they were. Steve ate them, not even caring how big of a mess he made. It upset him how hungry he got when in trouble. It led to him running low on food all the time. He picked out a carrot and ate it, too.

Then, he looked all around him. There were mobs EVERYWHERE! They peppered the land and some zombies had already smelled him and were slowly making their way to him.

"Crud" was all Steve could say.

Then, he noticed a distant light far away. He made it his goal to get over to the unknown light source. But it looked to be a good 200 blocks away. And between that and him...

"Enough! There's no time to waste! The light is the safest place in si-" Steve covered his mouth with his hand when he realized he'd spoken out loud. Seconds later, he heard the sound of bones clattering mixed with hissing and groaning. Steve froze, and so did his heart. On the other side of the mountain, he saw a skeleton, 4 zombies and 2 spiders. They had heard him! He figured that it was either fight-or-flight and instinctively reach for his sword but it wasn't there. Steve's heart froze for the second time that minute and then he looked as fast as he could for it. Then, it dawned on him, 'What if I dropped it without noticing while climbing the mountain?' Just then, the skeleton nocked an arrow and fired at him. Steve dodged it, but he still felt the wind ripple by him as the arrow whistled to the left of his head, missing by a few inches. Then, he started to run.

Steve started descending the mountain as fast he could. He even jumped down 3 blocks at a time. Then, he saw something shining at the foot of the mountain. Steve turned his head towards the source. It was his sword, shining in the moonlight. He was relieved, but not for long, for there were 2 witches standing over it. Steve's heart sank. He was going to have to get his sword, which was suicide or leave without it, but seeing all the mobs out there, that was suicide, too!

Steve chose to get his sword back. 'I just need to be quick' he thought, '3...2...1... NOW!' he jumped down on top of them, hoping to catch them by surprise. His leap seemed to be a little short, though. He intended to land ahead of them to grab his sword and dash out of there, but instead he landed on one of them. 'Hey, I'll take it.' After all, for a few seconds that was one less witch to throw potions at him. As he got up, the other witch got over her shock and threw a yellow colored potion at him. It hit him, but he scooped up his sword and was out of there, heading towards the light source. Steve started to feel woozy and dizzy, so he ran past all the mobs he came across, there were just too many to fight. He leaped to the sides of zombies, dodged arrows and potions, jumped over spiders and zipped right on by creepers. Steve could now see the light source. It was a village. 'A VILLAGE!?' he mentally hollered. Villages were supposedly wiped out during the Great Diamond War 10 years ago. Yet, this one clearly was inhabited. Steve kept feeling sicker by the second. 'What did that witch throw at me? A nausea potion?' There were zombies pounding on the doors of the houses. He had to help whoever or whomever were living here. Steve grabbed his sword and approached one. It was too focused on whoever was inside to notice him. So he hacked away at it until it died and turned to smoke. He did the same to the rest of them. By the time Steve killed the last zombie, Steve was so tired he felt like throwing up. 'Why am I feeling this way? I never get this tired this quickly.' Suddenly, an enderman attacked Steve, throwing him onto the ground. He must have looked at it on accident. Steve was already so weak he passed out right away. The last thing he saw before he passed out was that weird blue figure staring directly at him once again in the woods. Then he fainted.


	26. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 2

**I need to let you guys know that in this chapter, there are quite a few missing pieces in this chapter. I'm not sure what happened during the transferring process, but I don't think they'll affect the storytelling _too_ much. Also, the original story was heavily inspired by CaptainSparklez's Fallen Kingdom music series, which at the time only had two music videos. In fact, I had initially planned to make the events of Fallen Kingdom literally in the same timeline as A Hero's Hope. I guess you could say that was the original beginnings of Minecraftia's timeline, even though Fallen Kingdom is no longer in the timeline.**

Chapter 2 Friends worth dying for...

Steve dreamed he was listening to a strange conversation.

"I see the Hero you meant..."

"Steve?" Steve heard his name being used and figured he'd better listen to these strange voices. Oddly, they sounded somewhat familiar.

"Yes, it has reached a much higher level now, it can understand our thoughts..."

"Let it, it won't impact the destiny it was chosen to fulfill..."

"I like this human. It fought hard, it fought as though its life depended on it..."

"And it never gave up, no matter how close to death it was..."

"And we know it is capable of slaying the Enderdragon..."

That's why they sounded so familiar. After Steve slew the Enderdragon, he took the Enderportal back to his world and on the way, Steve listened to these mysterious servants of Notch telling him of his significance to the universe.

"And we know it is capable of slaying the Wither..."

"But are you certain it has what it takes to defeat the Dark One?"

"Only Fate can decide that..."

"What about its connections to the Dark One? They will either lead to everyone's preservation... or destruction..."

"I told you, Fate and only Fate can decide the future..."

"I sure hope your judgement proves correct, old friend, otherwise... may Notch help us all..."

"Do not worry, Steve has great potential..."

"And the girls?"

"They too have their own part to play in its destiny, very... important parts... and they are to be left alone until their destiny's intertwine with Steve's..."

Suddenly, one of the servants seemed to bring attention onto him.

"Now Steve, you must awaken to begin your Fate..." And with that, the whole dream faded to white.

Steve woke up to find a villager spoon-feeding him what tasted like apple sauce. The taste made him want to cry. His mother used to feed st time before that night came and took them away.

"Oh, you're awake! Thank Notch!" A tall, blond woman was looking down at him. He wondered if this was one of the g"Well, good morning, I guess. I'm Jessie and I'm your nurse for the moment. What's your name?"

"Umm, I'm Steve..." His voice sounded nothing like his original voice, it sounded more like a zombie. He tried to get up but he started to feel a familiar feeling of wooziness again wh"Don't get up! Your body needs more rest." Jessie said.

"Where... where am I?" Steve asked in that strange zombie voice of his.

"You are in Block Village. We found you passed out after Irony did."

"I-Irony?" Steve croaked.

"Yes, the local iron golem. We call him Irony."

"Oh."

"But, you really lucked out." Jessie continued.

"What do you mean, 'lucked out?'" Steve stammered.

"When Irony found you, you were getting beat up by an enderman, with at least a dozen mobs on your tail."

"Oh, I remember now." He remembered everything from the previous night, inc"And once we got over shock, we wondered why mobs would attack you if you were 'Him'". She said it like it was a name or title of someone, "and that's when we decided that you couldn't be 'Him',"

"Pardon me but, who is this 'Him'?" Steve asked.

Jessie looked around then whispered, "His real name is Herobrine and you look exactly like 'Him'." That name seemed to lower the temperature by 20 degrees for some reason.

"Wait! What? Herobrine?" Steve stammered. The name Herobrine sounded familiar.

"Yes, Herobrine."

Steve remembered why the name sounded familiar. Steve recounted the mythical man's legends. He had heard the legends from his mother. How Herobrine had terrorized villages for generations. He had even destroyed a kingdom. But, a hero of that fallen kingdom grew up and sought Herobrine out in his castle, where they fought. Then, in the end, the Hero defeated Herobrine. Later, he was discovered to be the prince. At least, that's how the legend goes.

"But, Herobrine's not real. He's a myth, he's a-"

"No, Steve. He is real."

"But... even he is real, wasn't he killed by a hero according to legend?"

"I don't know. All I know is that he exists."

Steve tried to get up again, but his whole body ached with pain.

"Relax! Don't push yourself, you need rest." And then, he passed out.

When Steve woke up, there was someone else taking care of him. It looked like a man. He looked about 20 years older than Steve and had light-brown hair and sandy-tan skin. He "Oh good, you're finally awake." The man said.

"Who are you?" Steve asked.

"The name's Jacob. I hear your name is Steve, am I right?" Jacob guessed.

"Yes." Steve replied.

"Well"Why not?" Steve shrugged. After all, why not try to make some new friends? He got up.

Jacob went over and opened the door. They walked out and into the street. Steve recognized the house they were in as the house he passed out right outside of. They started to walk down a gravel road towards the center of the village. Whenever they passed by a villager or villager trader, they either gave him a nasty look or just hid inside. He wondered why.

They stopped at a building with an anvil and two furnaces and a lava pit. Steve tried to think of the name of it, it was so long since he'd seen one. 'A Frog? No. A Fudge? No. Oh! A Forge!' He recalled.

"Isn't that a Forge?" Steve asked.

"Yes it is..." Jacob exclaimed, "...but I'm afraid the Blacksmith isn't there right now."

"Where are they?" Steve asked.

"He's probably out with Miranda."

"Miranda?" Steve questioned.

"Miranda's his wife." Jacob explained.

"Oh."

"So, who are you exactly?" Jacob asked Steve.

"I'm not Herobrine, if that's what you mean."

"I can see that. It's just kinda suspicious how similar you both appear. Especially right after 'the Incident'."

"The Incident?" Steve wondered what that meant.

"Tell you later. And I'm sorry, but some of the villagers might be afraid of you and not treat you as well as us because you look exactly like 'Him'." Jacob warned.

"I've been told."

"The only difference is that he has pure white soul-less eyes." Then, they continued on forward in silence until they stopped at a peculiar house. It was made entirely out of mossy cobblestone. That was strange, mossy cobblestone was incredibly rare. You could only find it in spruce forest biomes, jungle temples or... dungeons.

"This is Stephanie's house, I'm going to leave you in her care. Don't worry, she can seem rough at first, but once you get to know her, she's an angel." Jacob told Steve. Then, Steve headed for the door.

Steve's POV I braced myself but I wasn't too concerned. 'I have fought hundreds of mobs and slain all of them. How hard can this be?' I opened the door and stepped inside. I turned around and closed the door. Then, I turned around again.

Suddenly, I noticed a blur of green and next thing I knew, I was knocked on the ground and there was a creeper standing on me. 'A CREEPER!' I start to panic, and I grabbed for my sword.

Then, I noticed it on the ground 2 blocks away. 'I'm doomed!' I thought as I waited for the inevitable explosion. And waited. And waited. But the creeper didn't blow up. It didn't even swell.

"ASTLEY! DOWN!" A female voice commanded the creeper. The creeper hissed. "It's okay, it's just the Noobie." the voice assured. Reluctantly, the creeper got off of me. Then, a woman walked up to me. She held out a hand. "Get up!" she ordered. I grabbed her hand and she helped me up.

Now I got a chance to look at her. She had brown hair like me as well, except it was longer. She also had the same cyan shirt as me. But, she had a dark blue skirt and I had dark blue pants but, well, it was still shocking. Every detail was the same. "Sorry about that, Mr. Astley is very protective of me." That sounded completely opposite of creepers, but then again, it did attack me and not her. "I'm Stephanie, but my friends call me Steph. So, I take it you're that new person they rescued?" she guessed.

Finally, I snapped out of the shock. "Uh... yeah... I guess. I'm-", I was cut off.

"Steve, yes I've heard. Most of the village knows who you are."

"Uh... how did you befriend a creeper?" I blurted out without a thought.

"Well, seeing how you're the trustworthy type, I guess I can tell you. **(Sorry, I don't normally do this kind of thing, but this particular part makes me cringe so bad, it's really bad character building)** Two years ago, I found him with a broken leg, he had fallen off a cliff and he was laying on his side with his leg bent at a painful angle, he was obviously in serious pain. At first, I wanted to kill him so he couldn't blow me up, better not to risk it, right? So, I was walking up to him with my sword in hand. I think by then he knew I intended to kill him, so then, he gave me Wolf Eyes. By then, I knew something was wrong with him, but what could I do? We were natural enemies. But I couldn't just end his life when he was giving me those Wolf Eyes. So, I decided that, since he hadn't exploded I was going to take him in with me and fix his broken leg and let him go. But then, when I took him to the doctor, after the doctor got over his shock, of course, he reluctantly took a few tests on Mr. Astley. After the tests, he told me that Mr. Astley had a genetic disorder called 'Creeperocitus', a disorder where a creeper has little to no gunpowder, therefore, he couldn't blow up. Then, he took an X-ray of Mr. Astley and showed me the results. Mr. Astley has no TNT in him." Stephanie said roughly. That last sentence hung in the air for a few moments. I had never heard of a creeper without TNT. "The night is cruel, and mobs sometimes attack each other, thinking they're humans. A creeper with no TNT can't kill its attacker. Mr. Astley would've died out there and if not by a human, then by a ally zombie or witch. So I decided to take him home and seeing as how he couldn't explode, try to teach him how to fight back if he's attacked." She looked at Mr. Astley and smiled. "Then, after his leg healed, I just couldn't release him. I grew fond of him, and he grew fond of me. Since then, I taught Mr. Astley how to use his limbs for self-defense."

"I see, so do you have any more nasty surprises for me?" I asked, looking for anything that might jump out at me. Suddenly, she grabbed me by my arm and judo-flipped me. "Owww. What was that for?" I complained.

"That was for not knocking first before entering. And yes, I do have more nasty surprises. Just not now." I got up and brushed myself off. "Those are some peculier clothes you have on." She had obviously noticed that we both wore basically the same clothes.

"Oh, these?" I grabbed at my shirt, "These are my only clothes."

"You've worn the same clothes for 10 years straight?" Stephanie asked, her eyebrow raised.

"Yeah." I replied.

"I don't believe you." She declared.

"It's the truth!"

"Yeah, well why isn't it all torn up as if you actually were in a few battles then?" Stephanie pressed on aggressively.

"I wore armor most of the time, mostly iron armor!" I answered.

"How old are you?" Stephanie asked, more nicely this time.

"I'm around 18, I think."

"Around 18? That means when society was destroyed, you were around 8 right?"

"I think so."

"Then, how can you wear your clothes? They wouldn't fit."

"ENOUGH! Why are you asking me all these dumb questions!" I practically hollered. Mr. Astley hissed at the sudden shouting. I remembered what Stephanie said about the creeper being protective over her. And despite the fact that the creeper couldn't blow up, I really didn't want to get in a fight with a martial artist creeper.

"Mr. Astley, no! Steve, I need to know. Just tell me."

I sighed, "My clothes are made from Aethian sheep wool. That's how it survived all these years, and the wool stretches with my body." That brought back memories of when I first got my clothes. Aethian sheep were so rare, they went extinct right after the war. Their wool was so flexible and so sturdy and precious, few people had seen them and even fewer actually raised them. I just found an Aethian sheep out in a snowy plains biome. I was quite the adventurer back then even as a child. It was the most beautiful sheep I had ever seen. It was a sheep with wool that faded to different colors. According to legend, when a Aethian sheep fell from the mythical Aether realm, it gently floated down to Minecraftia in the arms of Notch. Notch told us that beauty and value lies in even the simplest of creatures everytime he carried a Aethian sheep down from the Aether and blessed someone with an Aethian fleece. He was also believed to bless only the kindest and the most worthy with one.

"Aethian sheep wool?! How is that even possible!?" She gasped.

"One day, before the war, I wandered through a distant snowy plains biome and I found an Aethian sheep. I promise you it's genuine."

"You know what, I'll take your word for it, after all, there's not much reason to lie." Stephanie went to the door and looked through the openings, "Well, I guess Jacob has left me to babysit you for the night. Might as well go to sleep."

"Wait, it's nighttime, already?" I looked out the window. Sure enough, it was dark and there was another creeper looking into the window as if it noticed Stephanie's creeper friend.

"Stay here, I'll go get another bed from storage." Stephanie said.

"Um... I wouldn't do that." I said.

"And why not?" She asked.

"Because, there's a creeper out there." I pointed out. She looked out and saw the creeper looking into the window.  
"Oh, you mean Cupa? She's a sweetheart."

"Oh great, another creeper friend?" I groaned.

"Yes, that's Cupa. I think she's Mr. Astley's mate. At least, she gets along with Mr. Astley real well. Unlike Mr. Astley, Cupa can blow up but she's kind to me. She won't hurt me." Then Stephanie walked to the door and opened it, went out, then closed the door. I walked over to the window and watched. Sure enough, the creeper just looked at Stephanie as she said something I couldn't make out in that voice that people speak to babies or pet wolves and cats.

Then, Stephanie walked away. I turned around and saw Mr. Astley in a corner. He just stared back at me. It became really awkward. I wished that I could understand the language of creepers. Creepers seemed to know more about human language than we knew about theirs as they could speak a little of our language. But I had full faith that if it could, like any other, it would try to blow me to little blocks. I just ignored him and began to set my things down. I walked over to my sword, picked it up and set it down with the rest of my things. I still couldn't believe a village actually survived 'that night'. I had never expected this kind of chat. If only Emily were here...

A few minutes later, I heard a scream. It had startled me and Mr. Astley's eyes widened which told me something was up. I grabbed my sword from my bag. Just when I thought I had gotten out of trouble, it found me once again. I ran out of the house with Mr. Astley hot on my heels. I ran past Cupa and she hissed and swelled. 'Uh-oh! Is she going to explode?' Then, Mr. Astley hissed in that strange creeper language of his. Cupa stopped swelling and she followed us. The screams continued and I followed them until I saw something that horrified me. There was Stephanie being chased by at least a dozen zombies. She was trying to fight them off but she wouldn't last long without help. Their groans filled the air. I looked as fast as I could through my bag for something that might help. Mr. Astley and Cupa went on ahead to help out. I knew the quickest way to kill a zombie was to leave an axe in its head, not with the sword. I searched for an axe or two, but I found three stone axes! I remembered packing them. I got them ready and walked towards the first zombie. There were four zombies in front of me. Again, the zombies were too preoccupied to notice me. I raised my axe, then swung it to the right of ones' head.

"GRRAARRAA!" the zombie moaned. It turned around to slashed at me. I dodged the attack and it fell to the dirt, dead. I left the axe in its head in case it was still alive.

Next, I did the same to the next zombie. This time, it died right away. After that, the other two zombies noticed me. They stumbled after me and I braced myself to dodge their attacks. One of them swung its arms at me and I dodged the attack. Then, it charged at me. I sidestepped the charge and as it ran passed, I jumped up towards it and used my weight to my advantage. I brought my axe up and as I fell, I swung it downwards on the zombie's head. It cut clean through the zombie's head. I hated doing such a evil thing, but I had to. It was obviously dead but I couldn't use the axe again as it broke from all the pressure and force. I looked over at the creepers. Who I thought was Cupa was headbutting a zombie while Mr. Astley I guess was either punching or kicking at its chest. And it kept stumbling around because of the attacks until finally, its head fell off and it fell to the ground. Next, they looked at me and ran to me which confused me. 'Um... why are they coming to me?' I wondered. Suddenly, I was knocked to the ground by something heavy. 'Of course! The other zombie!' How could I have forgotten so quickly? The zombie moaned and groaned as it tried to bite me. It was so hard not to be overpowered. I felt all the energy going out of my arms as I tried so hard to hold back the zombie's arms. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw more zombies stumbling towards us. I started to struggle to hold back the zombies as they began to pile up on me. I was really straining now! My muscles screamed with pain. My whole body felt like it was on fire, it burned with pain. I thought to myself, 'Is this really how I'm going to die?' There were at least five zombies on me. I had no idea how I was still holding out, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I would run out of energy completely. Every one of my muscles ached horribly. Suddenly, I felt the sharp the pain of a set of teeth biting into my arm, then into my leg, then my waist and on my other leg. I was being eaten alive! That's when I knew, my time was up. My body had absolutly no strength left. I could hold out no longer. Not even a strength potion could help me. I was going to die. At least I was finally going to be reunited with my family. I wondered if the Aether really did exist. If so, maybe my family would greet me with open arms. If anyone deserved to go to the Aether they did. I heard a voice, "Holy Great Notch! Irony! Save-" Then my mind went a million miles away. And then, I blacked out.

I saw a light ahead in the darkness. With a gasp, I wondered if I was in the fabled Void, rumored to be a pit of nothing but pure evil, darkness and death beneath Minecraftia. I followed the strange light. After all, the light was always good to me. As I got closer to the light, it slowly got bigger. I got closer and closer until I was surrounded in light. Finally, after a few minutes of flying up, I was out of the Void and I could see only light. I knew now that there was an Aether as that was where I was going. Suddenly, a voice rang out all around me. "Steve, you still have a destiny set out for you by Lord Notch. You cannot escape your destiny that easily. Only after you complete your destiny will you finally be allowed to rest in peace." Steve recognized that voice. It was the voice of one of the servants of Notch. "Wait... No... No!... NOOOO!" Steve yelled as he was brought back down to the Void below and the beautiful light was gone.

Meanwhile...

Stephanie's POV

I couldn't believe it. Steve was dead. And because of me. If I hadn't been so careless, I wouldn't have been caught by surprise and he wouldn't have needed to help me. Basically I killed him. I ran up to his limp form. I started to cry when I saw what happened to him. It wasn't like I was in love with him or anything stupid like that but he was just starting to seem like a friend.

"Holy Great Notch!" Jacob gasped in horror at the gruesome sight. "Irony! Save him! Now!" the village's Iron Patrol Golem obliged and killed all the zombies. "What in Lord Notch's name happened here?!" He shouted.

"It's my fault! All of it!" I cried.

"What?" Jacob stabbed a lunging spider in the head, "Well, explain later, I have a feeling these zombies aren't the only uninvited guests here." He said as he blocked an arrow from a skeletal archer with his sword. He began to run.

"Mr. Astley! Cupa! Get Steve! Bring him with us!" I commanded. I ran after Jacob. Usually I don't like giving the creepers orders as every part of our trio was equally important, so there were no bosses, but it was life or death. They carefully positioned his body on their heads and hurried along with us, careful not to drop Steve.

"Where are we going?" I asked Jacob.

"For now, anywhere but here!"

"What about my house?" I suggested. My house wasn't too far, it was only three houses down the road.

"All right." He agreed and we hurried to my house. We made it to the house opened the doors for the creepers, then shut it once we all were inside.

"Now, explain what happened!" Jacob demanded.

"Ssssssss..." Mr. Astley hissed.

"QUIET ASTLEY!" Jacob shouted. That shut Mr. Astley up. I knew I had to speak up. Jacob rarely got angry but when he did, it was best to what he asked before it got ugly.

"It was night so I went to storage to get a bed for Steve. On my way there, I had my mind set on other things and then, before I knew it, a horde of zombies surrounded me and I knew I couldn't overpower them all at once, so I shouted for help. Then, Steve came along with Mr. Astley and Cupa and started fighting their way towards me. And then it happened, a bunch of zombies piled up on him and then you came by." I looked back at Steve. I held back more tears.

"Steph, what happened? You're always alert." Jacob asked, concerned.

"I don't know. It's just what happened during the 'Incident'." I replied, not wanting to meet his eyes. Jacob sighed, "Steph, that incident upset everyone, not just you." Jacob said in a comforting voice. Just then, I thought I saw Steve's body move.

"Did you see that? Steve's body just moved!" I noted. But Jacob just shook his head.

"There's no way he can be alive Steph." But then somehow, Steve's eyes suddenly opened on their own.

 **What? But I thought this world was in Hardcore! Oh well, you guys might not think it's unforgivable, but I personally can't help but cringe badly at the storyline. Not that it was bad, it's just that the way I write my stories is very different from how I started out, and I think it's great to see how far I came. But enough of the ego, I wanna talk about other things. Jacob was the OG version of Howard, in case you didn't notice. The two share similar personality traits. Also, the prince from the Fallen Kingdom series that was mentioned in this chapter was the original Great Hero of the story, but when I decided to separate the FK series from my own to make it fully my own story, I actually had spent quite a lot of time thinking on how I could keep the Great Hero roughly the same as before while it was a different character. A surprising amount of time went into that process, considering that the Great Hero doesn't even make a physical appearance in the story.**

 **Now there's Stephanie. If you guys read my declaration of the end of A Hero's Hope, you'll know that I intended for her to be Steve's love interest, and that couldn't be more obvious, at least in my eyes. I guess I just didn't know what type of character I wanted her to be. She was before Alex was added into the game, so she has a lot of Alex's initial personality when they first meet, but then she becomes soft for some reason. I think because I had read so many fanfictions online at the time, I wanted to hurry up and get them together, but it was way too rushed. Also, Cupa the creeper... yeah, some of you know what's up. Don't look at me like that, I was a young teenage boy who checked out all kinds of mods :)**


	27. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Dark Memories

Steve's POV

I was being sucked from the light of the Aether realm back into the Darkness of the Void. I had wanted to be with my family so badly after being away from them for so long. But now, I was getting taken away from them once again. I started falling faster until I could barely see the light. Then it was gone. I closed my eyes to keep from seeing the horrible things of the Void. I wanted nothing to do with this Nether-ish realm.

A few minutes later, I couldn't keep my eyes closed any longer. My eyes flew on their own. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. I was no longer in the Void I realized.

"St... Steve?" A familiar voice said my name. My eyesight focused on two people staring at me in shock. At the wall, I saw what looked like two creepers. I groaned in exhaustion. I felt some of the worst pains I had ever felt. I then remembered how I got them. From those zombies. That meant I really was at the verge of death.

"Thank Notch! You're alive!" Jacob hollered.

"Ooowww..." I moaned in pain.

"Oh my Notch! But you... you were dead!" Stephanie stammered.

I tried to get up, but I instantly collapsed in pain with a grunt. Jacob and Stephanie both helped me up. I howled in pain as one of them grabbed onto one of my wounds.

"Sorry." Jacob apologized.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You came to help me when I needed help." Stephanie started to cry, "When I saw you, you had about five zombies on you. Jacob and Irony came when they heard me scream. Irony saved you. I just stood there watching. I... I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." I said weakly.

"Well, it's really late. We all need some sleep. I'm going to turn in for the night." Jacob said.

"Wait! You're actually going out there!? After all that choas!?" Stephanie protested, "Are you crazy?!"

"As long as I have Irony, I'll be fine." Jacob explained. Then, he walked out the door, leaving Stephanie and me alone listening to the dying sounds of spiders hissing and bones rattling as Irony killed them.

"You know what? You can have my bed for the night, Steve. It's the least I can do for nearly killing you." Her face darkened.

"It's not your fault Stephanie." I assured.

"Yes it is! Don't try to comfort me, Steve!" She snapped.

"But-", I sighed, "Fine, but where are you going to sleep?" I asked.

"Don't worry about me." She answered back, "Just go to sleep."

Then, as soon as she said that, I realized just how sleepy I was. I layed my head down on the comfy pillow and fell asleep instantly.

I dreamed about the day I first found the Aethian sheep. I was 7 years old and at my parents home. I ran out to the balcony where my mom was.

"Mom? May I go play in the winter wonderland?" I asked cheerfully. Winter wonderland was what I called the snowy plains biome about a mile away.

"Sure dear. As long as you wear leather clothes." My mom replied.

"Awwww, but I don't wanna!" I complained.

"Steven! I will not tolerate your attitude! You know Emily looks up to you. Now go wear your leather coat." Mom demanded. Emily was my little sister. She was 7 years old, too. We were twins so her birthday was next week. Mine was in 6 days.

"Fine..." I said dejectedly.

I went and put on my leather coat and went back to my mom.

"There. Now was that so hard?" She asked.

"No..." I answered back.

"Good, you can go now."

"Yay!" I ran outside.

"Just be back by dusk!" She called out to me.

As I headed out, I remembered to bring my bag. I made sure it had a compass, a clock, at least 3 firework flares, a creeper mask (Mom told me to wear it if I saw bad mobs), a few torches, a few bottles of my mom's amazing apple sauce, a few carrots, a map and a stick to practice fighting.

"Wait, brother!" I stopped and turned around and saw my sister running after me, "I want to play!"

"All right but first, let's go over the supplies. Do you have a stick?"

"Yes!" Emily answered.

"Do you have flares?"

"Yes!"

"What about a creeper mask?"

"YES! Can we go now?" Emily asked excitedly and impatiently.

"Okay. Let's hurry!" We headed off.

When we arrived, we were at the border of our plains area and the winter wonderland. I saw something that according to its looks, appeared to be a creeper. It saw us and came towards us.

"Emily, put your mask on!" I put mine on my head.

"Okay." She put hers on, too. The creeper stopped after a few seconds, then wandered off.

"It's funny how creepers can be so dumb!" Emily laughed. We continued on. We finally found a nice place to practice fighting with sticks. We pretended our sticks were swords as we were too young for actual swords. So we started to practice fighting. Since my sister had less experience, I would occasionally shout out tips like, "Keep your guard up!" and "Try to block the strikes!". After I beat her three times she finally got me once. I was aiming to jab her in the ribs but I got too determined and didn't defend myself when she kicked my legs and I lost balance and landed on my face.

"PLAAA!" I spat out dirty snow. "HEY, THAT'S CHEATING!" I whined.

"But you told me anything goes in a fight." Emily protested.

"Well yeah... but not that!"

"I won fair and square! Come on, you won like, 5 times!"

"3 times actually but who's counting?" I shrugged.

"You are! Come on just-" Emily's eyes suddenly widened as she looked behind me, "Stevie... what is that?!" I turned around and looked where she was looking. I felt my eyes widen, too. Somehow, a sheep was floating down from the sky. It was very beautiful. Its wool appeared to change from red to purple to blue and so on. It floated gently down.

"Do you see that? That man on the sheep?" Emily asked.

I nodded. I saw what appeared to be a transparent man with his arms around the sheep as if hugging it. The man looked like he was wearing white pants, a brown shirt, brown boots, and a brown cape with a crescent moon symbol on it. He was also bald and had a beard and seemed to radiate kindness. As soon as the sheep landed on the ground, the strange man looked at us, smiled and dissolved in the air. We looked at each other. We ran up to the strange sheep and it baa-ed and looked at us.

"Let's take him home!" Emily said excitedly.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

On the way home, we agreed to call him Baab. Luckily, Baab seemed to like Emily. He followed her everywhere all the way home. Seeing that man amazed me. When we made it home, our parents watched us. When they saw the sheep, their face expressions went from confusion to shock to intense shock.

"Steven, Emily! Where on Minecraftia did you find that!" Mom asked in a horrified tone.

"We found him." I replied.

"Are you telling the truth? Promise me you are!" Mom sounded panicky. She put her hand up to her forehead.

"We promise we are telling the truth Mom!"

"Now, Sarah. Let's not be hasty. Maybe they are telling the truth." Dad said.

"But Daniel, what are the chances-"

"What are the chances of them finding one to steal?" Dad finished. Mom sighed.

"All right. Sorry Emily. Sorry Steven." Mom apologized, "I just can't believe I'm actually looking at an Aethian sheep. They're just so rare..."

"Steve, Emily, really what happened?" Dad asked.

So I explained everything, from the creeper all way to the sheep floating down with the strange man holding on to it.

"Who was that man?" I asked when I was done explaining everything.

"From what you've told me, I can't I'm saying this but I think you two just witnessed Lord Notch carrying down this Aethian sheep from the Aether realm." Dad said.

And then, I woke up.

I heard a sound. I looked over to the creepers and saw that Cupa and Mr. Astley were gone. I then looked towards the door and saw Mr. Astley lifting his limbs to open the door. He walked through it, then shut it. 'Figures Stephanie would teach him to open and close doors.' I thought. It could have been hours or even days since I fell asleep. I looked over at the window. The sun was just beginning to rise on the horizon. I thought about my dream. I teared up at the memory. I missed my family so much and dreaming about them only made me miss them more. And Emily... I cried even more when I remembered how she died. I might still be able to sleep if I try again. So I closed my eyes. I was so tired. After a few minutes, I fell back asleep.

I dreamed it was my 8th birthday. Emily's birthday was tomorrow. I was taking care of Baab. As I was gave him more water, I heard Mom call my name.

"Steven, come here." Mom called me.

"Coming!" I looked at Baab, "I'll be right back, Baab." He looked at me and baa-ed. I ran inside the house.

"Yes, Mom?" I called.

"I have something for you." She held out a box with something in it. I took the box and shook it.

"Awesome!" I opened the box and peeked inside. There were some new clothes. One was a cyan shirt and another were darker blue pants. In the bottom of the box

were light grey shoes.

"I love them! Thank you so much!" I thanked her.

"You're welcome, Happy Birthday, Steven."

"How did you get these?!" I asked excitedly.

"Your father made them from Baab." Mom explained, "He put so much effort into them. Be sure to thank him."

"Thanks Mom, I will."

I went to my room to put them on. They fit perfectly. I looked at myself through the reflection of the window. I loved how they looked. I headed to the front door and found Mom waiting for me.

"Steven, that look suits you real well." Mom complimented, "It looks somewhat natural on you."

"Thanks Mom, I love them!" I stated as I skipped out the door.

I went to the patch Baab was at and took care of him for the rest of the morning.

At dusk that day, me and rest of my family were at the dinner table singing me the happy birthday song.

"Happy Birthday to you..." Dad and Emily sang as Mom brought out the cake.

"Happy Birthday to you..." They continued.

"Happy Birthday dear Steven," Emily still said Stevie so it sounded off tune.

"Happy Birthday to you!" They finished as Mom set down the cake in front of me. I blew out the torches nearby. Then we settled down and cut the cake in fourths then began to eat it. While eating the cake, we joked and laughed around. It was one of the best birthdays I had ever had as a lot of the time, mobs ruined the party.

But such happy times weren't meant to last.

After we finished eating, I began opening the presents. Mom got me a potion of swiftness, but she told she still had another one in case I got in trouble and tried to run away from her. Dad got me my clothes, but he also got me a baby pet wolf. "You don't know what I had to do to get her." Dad laughed. I opened the last present.

It was a emerald. It said on the wrapping it was by my sister Emily.

"Wow thank you Emily! Thank you so much!" I thanked her.

"You're welcome. Dad helped me get it. You deserve it."

Suddenly, a flash lit up the whole room. Seconds later, I heard the loudest sound I ever heard.

BAAAM!

"Oh no!" Dad sounded horrified, "Not now, not now!"

"Can it be?" Mom asked.

Dad ran outside. Mom ran to the door. Before she was out the door, she turned and looked at us.

"Don't come outside, either of you, you hear me!?" She ordered.

"Yes, Mom!" We both replied at the same time.

"No matter what you hear, don't come outside!" Then she, too, ran out. We ran to the windows. I then noticed something in the sky. I looked at it. There were clouds covering the sky. We saw streaks of light zigzagging towards what looked like a vortex of darkness. More flashes and explosions came from them. Whatever that vortex was, I didn't like it. It made the creepiest ambience. All of a sudden, a beam of light shot down from the vortex and hit the ground, passing through it. Sceonds later, something else caught my eye. I looked at the ground and saw hundreds of white eyes appearing in the dark. Then, I heard the most frightening noises. The white-eyed things were moaning and groaning. Next, they got up and walked towards the house. Suddenly, another flash lit up the area. I saw in that flash those stumbling figures were green with decay. I also saw what appeared to be skeletons standing up holding bows.

I heard Emily whisper, "Stevie? What is happening?"

"I don't know" was how I replied.

Then, I saw Mom get out a bow and arrows and started nocking her bow. Dad got out a sword and ran up to a Green Guy. Next, he swung at the Green Guy until it fell over and turned to smoke. Then, the Green Guys started to grab on to Dad and bringing him to the ground.

"DADDY!" Emily yelled.

"We have to help them!" I panicked.

We ran outside to see what we could do. Mom noticed us and ran towards us.

"Steven! Emily! What are you DOING here?! I told you to stay inside no matter what!" Suddenly, the green things started to grab onto her, too!

"Steven, Emily RUN! Get out of here NOW!" She screamed.

"But Mom!" we cried.

"NOW!" We started to cry, but ran away.

"We love you-" we heard our parents say before they were cut off. We cried and ran as far away from the place that was our home no more. While we ran, I could've sworn I saw a man with the same clothes as me wearing a smile on his face. And then, I woke back up.

I woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. Who was that man? He wasn't there at the time. Stephanie was looking over me with concern on her face.

"Are you all right?" She asked me. I got up.

"What's wrong?" Stephanie asked in kind voice.

"Nothing." I said bitterly.

"No seriously, what's wrong?" She asked again. This time, I gave in, "I dreamed about my 8th birthday."

"Okay, so what's wrong with that?" Stephanie questioned.

"It was the day all this choas began. Worse, it was the day me and my sister watched our parents die." Her face shown sympathy on it.

"Oh... Steve, I'm so sorry. I didn't know..." She apologized.

"It's all right."

"Sorry but... what happened to your sister?"

I looked at her straight in the eyes, "She's dead..."

"I'm really sorry." She apologized again, this time looking away.

"Yeah well, it's not your fault."

A few minutes later, Stephanie started talking again.

"Come on, I want to show you the rest of the village." I got up and followed her.

Being a Minecraftian, I healed quite fast. Even a bite from a zombie couldn't make me sick in any way. The wounds from last night were mostly healed. The pain of moving my arms and legs still hurt, however but I shrugged it off.

I grabbed my bag and we walked out of Stephanie's house and around the village. We stopped in front of a house made from cobblestone.

"That's Mr. Howard's house. He's nice but if you make him angry..." She paused and I could tell it would be bad. We continued on to another house made of oak wood.

"That's Dr. Jefferey's house. He's the village's local doctor. He nursed you back to health when you first arrived here..." Stephanie explained, "but sadly, he's out so I can't introduce you two."

"Okay."

We kept walking around until we came across a house made of sandstone.

"Over there is Jessie's house. I'm sure you remember her." Stephanie pointed out. I remembered the woman who had spoon-fed me apple sauce. She had introduced herself as Jessie, "But, unfortunately, she is out, too."

"Why is everyone out?" I asked.

"This is... a big village. Lots of mouths to feed. So we have to go on food shifts all the time. So, we work in shifts. We go farming, fishing, raise and butcher cattle. The norm." She explained.

"Oh, I see."

We continued going around the village until we came across a brick house.

"That house belongs to Ema. She is really kind and considerate. You two would get along easily." Stephanie exclaimed.

"You really think so?" I asked.

"Definately. She's my best friend, so I know what kind of people she gets along with." Stephanie assured.

"Well, she sounds nice at least."

"Yeah, I'll try to introduce you two as soon as possible." She promised.

Just then, Jacob ran up to us. He looked upset.

"Hey you two! We have a problem!" He panted, "Two of our fishers got attacked by some zombies. They're recovering, and I thought maybe you two would like to take their place... for the sake of the village?" Jacob requested.

"Sure thing Jacob. Steve, do you want to help out?"

"Certainly."

"Thank you both." Jacob replied.

I followed Stephanie through the village until we reached the edge of the village. I saw what looked like a few fishing docks surrounding a huge lake.

"See that?" Stephanie pointed to the docks, "That's where we're going to fish."

"Alright."

We walked over to the fishing docks and saw a chest. Stephanie went over to the chest and opened it. She took out two fishing rods. Next, she walked back to me and handed one to me.

"That's where the fishing rods are usually stored." She explained, "So, if you're ever assigned to go fishing, go over to the chest and just pick one out."

"Okay, thanks." We went over to the end of the dock.

"So do you know how to catch fish?" Stephanie asked me.

"Yes. I used to have a house by an enormous lake." I replied back.

"What happened to it?"

"It got taken over by zombies." I explained casually.

"Oh" was all she said, "Okay, so obviously the main goal is to catch as many fish as you can in a day." She informed, "Think of it as some kind of minigame. If you catch any junk or treasure it's yours to keep or you can trade with Wes." She explained.

"Wait... Wes?" I asked.

"Oh right! I forgot to introduce you two. Follow me." She brought me over to a dock left of ours to a villager with a strange nose. He sighed as we came close.

"Steve, meet Wes. Wes, this is Steve." The villager just sighed.

"Um... why's his nose so big?" I whispered.

"We don't really know why. It just is." Stephanie whispered back.

"Hurrrr..." the villager sighed again.

"Wes will trade you emeralds and gold for treasure you reel in, and iron for junk."

We headed back to our dock. Then, we pulled out fishing rods again and cast it out over the lake.

"It's okay if you miss a few-"

"Got one!" I said as I reeled in the line the moment my bobber went down. I reeled in a clownfish.

"Already?" She examined my catch, "Not bad. Any fish you catch goes in the ender chest." She gestured towards a very dark green chest next to the fishing rod chest. I could've sworn it wasn't there a minute ago. I didn't like the look of it. It had ender particles swirling around it. Stephanie continued, "Except for pufferfish.

Never place pufferfish with other food. It'll poison all of it."

We continued fishing after that. About 5 minutes later I caught another fish. This time it was a salmon. Around the same time, Stephanie caught a fish, just a normal fish. We both tossed our catches into the ender chest. A few minutes later I caught a pufferfish. Stephanie told me to keep it to trade with Wes.

"He'll trade it with a witch. Pufferfish are used for potions of water breathing."

"Okay." We kept fishing.

By the end of the day, I had caught 3 fish, 5 salmon, 2 clownfish, 3 pufferfish, 3 water bottles, a lily pad, 4 rotted flesh, 2 bones, an enchanted book, some leather boots, and another fishing rod. Stephanie had caught 4 fish, 6 salmon, 1 clownfish, 2 pufferfish, 3 bones, 1 rotted flesh, 3 lily pads, an enchanted fishing rod, a pair of leather boots and 4 water bottles.

"It's a good day for fishing today. Usually we don't catch this much stuff. How about we go trade our stuff with Wes, we can get a lot of emeralds, gold and iron." Stephanie tempted.

"Sure thing." I agreed, imagining the piles of gold, iron and emeralds. It probably wasn't near that many, but it was nice to imagine it.

We walked over to Wes and he brought out a sign that listed the trades he was willing to make. I looked at the trades I was also okay with.

3 Bones = 1 Iron Ingot

4 Rotten Flesh = 1 Iron Ingot

1 Lily Pad = 1 Iron Ingot

1 Leather Boots = 2 Iron Ingots or

1 Gold Ingot

1 Pufferfish = 3 Iron Ingots or

2 Gold Ingots or

1 Emerald

I traded all of those items to Wes and he gave me the promised payment. I got a lot of emeralds, gold and iron.

While Stephanie traded with Wes, I looked at the sun and noticed we had at least two hours before dusk.

"So what should we do? We still have two hours til it gets dark." I pointed out once she was done. Stephanie looked at the sun.

"Huh, I guess you're right. I know what we can do." She looked at my sword which I always brought with me.

"I've noticed you're somewhat comfortable with the sword. How about we see just how skilled you are?"

"Sorry but I don't fight girls-" All of a sudden, Stephanie grabbed me into a headlock, then threw me onto the ground.

"Owww..." I moaned.

"Maybe you'll make an exception for me." Stephanie tempted.

"I really shouldn't..."

"Seriously? Okay..." Stephanie grabbed my arm.

"Whoa! Let's not get hasty now!" I yanked my arm away, "You're somewhat abusive I've noticed."

"I'm not like those sassy girls you see." She explained, "I mean business."

"Okay, since you want to so badly." I gave in, "But don't be mad at me if I do hurt you."

"Don't you worry, I'm a natural-born warrior." She bragged, "Follow me." And we were off.

I followed Stephanie to what appeared to be a small arena made of different types of stonebricks about a mile from the village. Stephanie started unpacking her bag and took out an iron sword. Somehow, looking at her with a sword seemed to make her even more intimidating.

"Let's see how good you really are." Stephanie challenged. I drew my sword.

"May the best fighter win." I declared. We crossed our swords and the training began.

Suddenly, she thrust at me with her sword aimed at my hip. I deflected it in the nick of time. Then, I noticed her sword swinging on my right. I quickly blocked and tried to counterattack by swinging my sword at her waist. She blocked with her sword, but she was distracted so I let her block rebound my sword and reversed my swing to the other side of her waist. She noticed what I had planned a second too early and swung her sword at mine to prevent me from using extra force to my advantage. Our swords met and sparks flew. Then, she attempted to thrust her blade at my hip again. I dodged to the left. Her sword shot past me.

"Stephanie! Are you TRYING to kill me?!" I hollered. She put on a smile.

"No, not yet. Call me Steph. You are my friend." **(ABORT, CRINGE OVERLOAD!)**

"I can feel the affection..." I grumbled.

We continued practicing. She then slashed downwards with her blade. I blocked with my sword laying sideways. Then, I spun around and thrust out my blade. Steph ducked to dodge my spin attack. I stopped, I was getting dizzy. She slashed at me but somehow I dodged. I got over my dizziness. I started to advance forward, forcing her to step backwards. This time, I was being offensive and she was being defensive. I swung my sword upwards into an uppercut, but she blocked it the same way I did with her downward slash. Next, I feinted an stab to her shoulder and swung at her chest. Steph leaped backwards in time for my slash to miss completely. Then, faster than a charging enderdragon, she latched her sword with mine and twisted both our swords until I had no choice but to drop it. She raised her sword so it was level to my eyes and smirked.

"Now I see why you wouldn't fight a girl." Steph said smuggly. She brought her sword away from my face and put it away. I groaned in disbelief.

Steph observed the sun again. "Well, let's head back to my house. I'll get you a bed when we get back."

I looked at the sun as well. It was about an hour away from setting. We headed back to the village.

By the time we made it back, the sun had long since set and that was because on the way back, we ran into a lot of zombies, which we reduced to smoke. Steph went to get a bed for me and I went with her. I did not want to die again. She didn't protest.

When she got the bed, I helped her carry it as quietly as possible so we could attract as few mobs as possible and so we wouldn't wake people up. When we brought it to the house, we fit it through the door and then close the door. Steph sighed, "We're at home base, finally."

We propped it down on the other side of the house from her bed. She jumped onto her bed. Then, I sat down on top of mine and thought about the day. Within moments, I heard skeletons and zombies outside. I thought about Mr. Astley.

"So where's Mr. Astley?" I asked Steph.

"Mr. Astley is... away sometimes. He likes to be away from other people. Plus, he likes to be outside at night, because other creepers are out. He likes to chat with them. He can be gone for the night, he could be gone for a week. It varies. Same thing with Cupa." Stephanie explained.

"Okay... so what about you?"

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"What about your family?" I questioned.

"Oh... my family, same thing as yours, they got killed. Me and my sisters lived but..." She looked upset.

"But?" I pressed.

"They died too. Well, except for Victoria, wherever she is. I'm sorry, I don't like to talk about my family." She looked away.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I know how it feels... terrible, no... worse than terrible." I related. We didn't talk after that. I decided to get some sleep, hopefully without more painful memories. Within minutes, I fell right to sleep.

I dreamed it was several years after the dead first began to rise. I was 13 years old, traveling around with my sister who was 13, too, looking for a village that could've survived since our world began to fall. We made sure to stay within a few miles of our parents' house. We stopped, looking for the sun. It was in the middle of the sky. By day, creepers and witches chased us. By night, the undead did. We decided to rest before going on.

"Steve, how can you still believe a village can exist? Even if one survived 'that night', it would've been wiped out after all these years." Emily panted.

"To be honest, I'm not sure any villages could have survived." I admitted.

"Good, you still are sane..." Emily joked, "but I don't see why we should risk our lives so often for something that might not exist anymore."

I thought about all the times we were almost eaten by zombies and shot to death by skeletons and blown up by creepers. There were a lot of different times.

"You're right. I think I know a place nearby where we can stay for a while. Follow me."

I ran towards a familiar mountain over in the distance, at least 500 blocks away. My sister whined, "What? I thought we were taking a break!"

"Once we get there we'll be safe. Then, we can take a break, I promise!" I hollered back at her.

"Fine..." She followed me.

As soon as we got there, I saw the familiar stone button, which blended in with the stone wall. I waited for her to catch up.

"This is a base that I made when I was little." I pointed to the button when she caught up. When she looked at the wall, she had a look of confusion on her face.

"Umm... well where's the base part of it?" Emily asked. I looked at the wall.

"Oh... well you can't see it because it's camouflaged." I exclaimed as I pressed the button. Four sticky pistons retracted four blocks of stone. My sister's mouth dropped.

"Wha- why didn't you tell me?" Emily interrogated.

"I uh... wanted a place all to myself..." I explained guiltily, "So I carved out this place in secret."

"You secretive, little..." Emily grumbled jokingly.

We headed inside the mountain base. Aside from all the dust everywhere, the place was in pretty good condition. It didn't appear to be looted. We looked around. Suddenly, the pistons reformed the walls and it was pitch-black again.

"Steve?" Emily called, her voice full of alarm.

"It's okay, I got it." I assured her. I took out a torch and struck it against the wall. Fire erupted at the tip of the torch and the whole area was bathed in light. I placed the torch on a wall.

"There. All better." I declared. I again looked at the base. It was a wide circular-shaped room with a few tunnels. 'That's odd' I thought to myself, 'I don't remember digging out tunnels.'

"Steve..." Emily's voice was still alarmed, "If it's been dark all these years with no light..." She didn't need to continue for me to realize what she meant. There could be mobs all over the base.

"We need to be careful." I warned, "And NEVER get separated, ever!" We both drew our stone swords and advanced in the dark pathways.

We listened to the moaning of zombies and rattling bones of skeletons down the corridors. We couldn't see anything until our eyes adjusted to the darkness. For the time being, we used our ears to hear how close we were to the mobs. That would have been bad if we stumbled upon a witch or a creeper. We placed torches at 15-block intervals. When our eyes adjusted to the dark, we were really close to the mobs. We had traveled about 50 blocks from the safety of the lit room. Finally, after a few more steps, I saw in the darkness two zombies had smelled us and were approaching us.

"Stay back." I warned Emily.

There wasn't enough room to swing my sword so when the zombies came, I stabbed them in the head. They collapsed to the ground. We continued on until we made it to a corner. I gestured to my sister to wait. I leaned over to look over the corner and saw two skeletons. I looked back at Emily.

"What did you see?"

"Well, there are two skeletons from what I can see." I whispered.

"Good, we can get them to fight." Emily claimed.

"Fight?"

"Yes, if a skeleton shoots and hits another, they'll start to fight." She informed me.

"Well, that's a nifty trick. Let's try it out."

We headed towards the skeletons and as soon as we were close enough for them to see us, they started getting their bows ready. The skeleton in front shot an arrow at me but just in time I blocked it with my sword. The second skeleton shot its buddy and sure enough, it started shooting back at it. Soon it erupted into an all-out skeletal battle. I decided to have some fun.

"On the left, we have the Mighty Skeleton..." I narrated in a announcer's voice, "And on the right, we have Skeleton the Strong! Who will win?!" I continued as they kept shooting each other. Emily started to laugh for the first time in forever.

"I vote for Skeleton."

"Yeah, well, then I vote for Skeleton." I opposed.

Then the skeletons shot each other one last time and they both hit their target at the same time and died, turning to smoke. I looked at Emily.

"Looks like the winner is Skeleton." I shrugged.

We traveled around the corridor until we saw light up ahead. We ran to it and when we got to it, there was a room. But it was the same room we were in when we walked to the corridors. I didn't remember any intersections in the corridors.

"That's odd." My sister said.

Then suddenly, a great gust pushed Emily backwards back into the darkness. She let out a grunt as she hit the wall. When she hit the wall, it fell over, revealing a secret room. Emily kept getting carried by the unseen force into the room.

"EMILY!" I shouted as I ran after her.

"STEVE!" She screamed. I saw a strange transparent man in blue clothes grab her and throw her at the wall of the room onto a stone button, activating it. Then, I heard an heartstopping sound. Emily appeared to have heard it, too, as her eyes widened. It was the sound of TNT igniting. The man turned around and looked at me and started laughing. It was the most terrifying sound I ever, aside from the sound of a likely TNT explosion. Then, he disappeared. Suddenly, explosions rocked my ears louder than any creeper explosion. After that, I heard something that was more painful than any zombie bite, any creeper explosion, any witch potion.

"STEEEEVEE-" I heard my sister cry before an blast covered her. Those were her last words.

"EMIIILLYYYY!" I was horrified at what had happened.

When the explosion was gone, I searched through the rummage.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I kept praying to Notch that she was somehow still alive. I kept searching frantically until I dug through all of it.

"NOOOOOOOO!" I started crying. Then, I muttered between sobs, "Emily... noooo... why you?" My best friend, my sister... was dead.

I ran outside. It was night and there were mobs everywhere, but I didn't care. I looked up to the sky and shouted at the top of my lungs, "NOTCH! WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS!? HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO EMILY!?" I collapsed to my feet, crying my eyes out until I couldn't cry anymore.

After a few minutes, I made a vow I intended to keep more than any promise I ever made. I made the most binding oath ever known to Minecraftians.

"I swear on the holy Temple of Notch that I will kill whoever is responsible for my sister's death!" Then, I woke back up.

 **Omg, it's the one, the only-THE FISHING CHAPTER!(lol). Also, I felt my heart pound with joy when Steve was teaching his sister how to fight, because that was such a foreshadow of how his character would become in The Hero's Path *insert plug about how you should read the series I'm currently working on* I also find it interesting that Jessie remained a part of the series over the past five years, despite not having a big role in the story overall. And I remember while writing Steve's dream of his eighth birthday I was actually crying about the way his parents died. It was such an emotional thing for me. And by now, you may have noticed that a lot of things here carried over to the current version of A Hero's Hope, mainly the whole general storyline to this has been roughly the same: _Steve is living alone, then goes exploring to find a village. He has some dreams about what caused his adventure across the Overworld with his sister to begin_. And there's more parts of the storyline that carried over as well. I've had the entire story planned for years, and while at first it was improvised, I finished it around three years ago.**


	28. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Just a Nightmare

"Steve, STEVE!" a voice called. Someone was shaking me. I groaned.

"Seriously Steve, wake up!" My eyes snapped open. Stephanie was shaking me awake.

"What is it!?" I snapped.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you mean, 'am I okay'?"

"You were shaking around a lot muttering 'Emily'. Who's that?"

"My sister, her name was Emily."

"Oh..."

"I dreamed about her. Naturally it was about the time she died." I thought what I had dreamed about. The strange man wasn't there when it actually happened, at least not from what I remember.

"Gosh, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." This time I decided to finally tell someone about the strange man. "But this time I saw someone, someone who wasn't there before when it happened..." I described the man to Stephanie and told her about all the other times I saw him.

"I don't know who that man could be but I'll ask Jacob about it. He probably knows something about him." Then she continued, "Anyway, I want to introduce you to someone." She gestured for me to follow her, so I did. We left the house and I saw that the whole village was covered in thick morning fog. We headed to a brick house.

"Wait, isn't this where that Ema girl lives?" I asked.

"Yes. I woke you up early because I really want to introduce you two since she has to work for a shift again today." Steph claimed.

She went up to the door and knocked on it. A few moments later, the door opened.

"Hey, Ema? I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine." Stephanie informed the woman.

"All right, come on in." The woman invited us.

We walked into the woman's house. I saw another woman standing on the other side of the room.

"Steve, meet Ema. Ema, this is Steve." Stephanie explained.

I observed Ema. She looked somewhat familiar. She had blond hair and wore a pink shirt and a red skirt completed with purple shoes. She stared back at me. It seemed she didn't know what to make of me. Suddenly, something dawned on me. She had the eyes of someone who expect the worst things to happen at anytime. Just like my... No it couldn't... could it be? I thought to myself. Then, her eyes widened as though she recognized me.

"Wait! I know you! Ste... Steven?" She cautiously asked, "Is that... you?"

"Emily?" My mind was going a million miles a minute, "Are you really... Emily?" Then, she smiled and I knew she was my little sister.

"Steven!" She ran at me. I grabbed her and hugged her.

"You're alive!?" How are you alive?!" I asked her.

"Wait! You mean Ema's your sister?!" Stephanie questioned, clearly shocked.

We separated, and Emily was the first one to explain.

"Steven is my older brother. We're twins and were best friends when we were kids. Then, 'that night' came and our parents died in the fight against the undead. After that, we struggled for years to survive. Then, we found a shelter and we stayed there. There were mobs in it so we cleared it out. But then, something threw Steven onto a TNT trap and it blew up, and we got separated." Emily summarized.

"How did you-wait what?" I noticed she said something threw 'Steven' on the trap, "But, it was you who was thrown onto the trap!"

"No Steven, you were. I saw it happen." Emily protested.

"I saw AND dreamed about it. You were the one thrown onto it!" I protested back.

"Wait!" Steph hollered, "you both saw the same event with different victims?" She asked with a worried look.

"Yes." I answered.

"I guess." Emily agreed.

"Oh no..." Stephanie groaned.

"What!" Both me and Emily asked at the same time. We looked at each other.

"With that man Steve described and the way you two are describing the scene..." She gulped, "I fear you might have had a 'Herobrine Nightmare'." Steph claimed.

"What? What's a 'Herobrine Nightmare'?" I asked. I started feeling more and more like a Noob.

"A Herobrine Nightmare is a trick of the mind Herobrine casts on his victims. They're so realistic that if his victims die it's usually from fright or horror." Stephanie explained.

"I've been hearing a lot about Herobrine. Why does this village know so much about him?" I asked.

"It is believed by a lot of people that Herobrine's the reason why the dead arose ten years ago. He's also believed to have caused the Great Diamond War. So yeah, obviously we want to get rid of him. We believe once he is slain, the dead will finally stay dead." Steph replied.

"Who is he, exactly?" I really wanted to know. If I could stop him, maybe the dead would stop rising and it would be much easier to live. I shook the crazy thought away, I remembered the legends of how Herobrine destroyed anyone who got in his way, and how he had destroyed an entire kingdom in a single night. I would stand no chance against him.

"The one who knows more about him than the rest of the village is Jacob. His parents were killed by Herobrine."

"Oh no..." I felt bad for Jacob. Then, realization hit me in the face. "Wait! You mean Herobrine, as in the Herobrine from legend, has been watching us for years?"

"Probably." Steph answered back. I started to panic.

"But what does he want from us?"

"I don't know, Steve. But there's probably something about you two he's interested in." Steph guessed, "You both had a Herobrine Nightmare, which are only caused by Herobrine himself. I think we need to talk to Jacob about this. Come on." She told us. We followed her out of the house. I looked at the sun, which was just barely visible in all the fog. I swore the stuff was as thick as Void Fog. The sun was just peeking out of horizon. This time, I heard the dying groans of zombies and painful clattering of skeletal bones erupting in fire. I also heard the hiss of the neutral spiders. In the thick fog, I could see beady red eyes staring directly at us, watching us. Suddenly, a zombie came stumbling at us from the fog.

"Watch out!" I warned them as I braced myself with my sword. Then, it collapsed, it had burned to death and turned to smoke. "Nevermind." I assured the two. Then all of a sudden, the fog burned away in the sun's heat and we were bathed in warmth. It felt amazing. We looked around the village, there were mobs EVERYWHERE, particularly zombies.

After a few minutes, we came to a stop by a stone house. It was made out of smooth stone, aside from a few windows.

"This is Jacob's house. He gets up early so he should be up." Stephanie explained.

"Why is everyones' house different?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why is everyone's house made of a different material?" I corrected myself.

"Oh, well that's because some people forget who lives where, so we do that so we can remember where each person lives. It also symbolizes a bit of our personalities.

For example, my house is made of mossy cobblestone which represents my adventerous spirit. Ema's house is made of bricks which represents her brick tough nature." She pointed out.

"What do you think my house would be made of?" I asked.

"Well, probably glass or glowstone, seeing how weak you are." Stephanie joked.

"Hey! No, it would probably be made of netherrack or netherbrick. To represent my blazing determination for the death of the evil mobs." I predicted, "Or maybe even obsidian."

"Yeah, for your stubborness." Emily joked.

"Oh come on! Not you too!"

Steph and Emily laughed.

"All right. Let's go." Steph said. Then, she knocked on the smooth stone house's door. A couple seconds later, the door opened and Jacob looked at us.

"Ahhh, Steph, Ema, Steve, it's nice to see you three again." He seemed to be in a good mood, I felt bad for having come to seek knowledge on the man who killed his parents.

"Jacob, we need information on 'Him', and you know more about him than anyone we know." Steph explained to Jacob. Jacob's face darkened.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about. Come on inside." Jacob walked inside.

 **So there we are. The classical menace, the one, the only, the Herobrine(well, his mythos). And yes! He has the ability to cast nightmares upon those he sets his sights on. Just like in a certain mod... Yeah, out of everyone in the story, Herobrine's perhaps the one who has undergone the most change, though you can also argue that Steve has had a bigger change in terms of backstory. In the original storyline, Herobrine was much more of a spectral threat, more of a ghostly demon, whereas in the modern version, he is more of a warrior gone astray.**


	29. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Herobrine's Original Purpose

We followed him. He walked over to a table and gestured for us to sit with him. We went over to the table and sat down.

"So... why do you seek to know about 'him'?" Jacob asked us. Steph explained the situation while I looked around. His house was fairly large with a few bookshelves on a wall. There was also a double chest propped to the side of the books. I wondered what was in it. In the corner of the house, there was a brewing stand, holding what looked like a potion of strength, a potion of regeneration and a potion of swiftness. There was also a bed in the back of the room.

"I believe these two are targeted by the demon himself."

"What! Why would that behemoth target these two?"

"I don't know, but they seem to have had a Herobrine Nightmare years ago."

"What! And they just told us now?"

"Um... Jacob, we didn't realize until today we both were even alive." Emily pointed out. Jacob looked at us.

"Do you know each other?" He asked curiously.

"This might shock you but Ema and I are twins." I revealed to Jacob.

"WHAT!" Jacob repeated for the third time that morning, "Ema, you never told us you had a brother."

"It was too hard to talk about." Emily admitted.

"Look, we need to know about 'him'. Preferably now." Steph urged. Jacob sighed. He went to his bookshelves and looked through a few books, nodded then ran back to us.

"Very well. He is a demon that is said to have been a gift from Lord Notch, who brought him here to protect us... but it had disasterous results." He read from his books. Emily opened her mouth to say something, but Jacob cut her off, "Save all questions till I'm done. Now where were we... ah. So, Herobrine was originally a good warrior... a hero... as his name implies. He helped protect villagers against evil mobs of other lands, like the Hydra from the Twilight Forest realm, and the Ender Titan from the land of Enderia. He even protected the land of Minecraftia from other invading kingdoms. In battle, he was easily the most powerul being alive. He could hold spheres of fire in his hands and throw them at his enemies. He had great control over the elements like air and fire. He had even more strength than that of the Monking. He knew more about well, everything than anyone. He also usually didn't fight with a sword, he didn't even need to. Notch made him to be the perfect guardian. He also united Minecraftian mobs with humans. Everytime a human and a creeper saw each other, they saw a friend, much like Stephanie with Mr. Astley and Cupa. Minecraftians and mobs alike found harmony with each other. It was like that for generations. Mobs didn't attack humans and humans didn't attack mobs. It was a peaceful era. People claimed his pure white were filled with the holy light of the Aether world. At the end of the Era of Peace, Herobrine wondered why he did this for such a poor species. He decided to use his gifts for something worthy of his talents. That's when he turned evil. Herobrine had wanted to rule all of Minecraftia. He hated humans for they were too pitiful. He convinced all the mobs to turn aggressive towards humans. He quit helping the humans and began to conquer villages and kill the humans. Herobrine started to build an army of the Minecraftian mobs that were once close friends of the humans. That was when mankind realized their hero was gone. They began building an army of snow golems, iron golems, wolves and Minecraftians when they realized Herobrine intended to kill them and take their home. When the inevitable time for war came, both sides of the war prepared for battle. Then the first battle came and both sides battled hard and in the end, both sides had hundreds of casualties. In the middle of the war, Lord Notch had been watching from the Aether Temple. He prophesized that a warrior from the kingdom Herobrine destroyed would rise up to the fury of Herobrine, and eventually defeat the Dark King. He had seen enough to know that his creation was committed to evil forever. At the end of the war, both sides had thousands of lives lost. The war became known as the Great Mob War from then on. It was then that the Minecraftian destined to defeat Herobrine set off to find Herobrine's castle, slaying Herobrine's minions and besting his giants. When he arrived, they fought as hard as they could and in the end, the hero, who turned out to be the prince of that fallen kingdom, supposedly defeated Herobrine. But people believe he is still alive. I am one of them, for I have seen him."  
Suddenly, I heard what sounded like fire charges being shot out by something... or someone. Stephanie gasped.

"Everyone run! GO!" Jacob yelled. We all ran outside and heard explosion after explosion and screams filled the air. I looked towards the source of the blasts and saw rocks covered in fire flying and slamming into random houses, creating craters or falling straight through them. Then, I saw a familiar man in blue clothes floating in the air. He held out his hands and the little meteors formed above them from air. He then swung his arms towards a house made of hardened clay and the mini-meteor flew at it, creating a giant hole in it. The man then turned around, and I got a good look at him. My heart stopped. He looked just like me, minus the maniacal smile on his face and the pupil-less eyes.

"Herobrine..." Jacob's eyes shown with unflinching hatred.

Herobrine noticed us and sneered. If possible, his smile got even bigger. Then, he vanished, smoke fading from where he originally was. A couple seconds later, he reappeared on the ground staring directly at us, no... at me. Then, he vanished again, teleporting right in front of me. It startled me so much, I almost stumbled. It was so unnerving, seeing him teleporting so suspensfully. I froze as he stared at me. Finally, he spoke.

"This is the hero Notch believes can defeat me? Pitiful! You stand no chance." The evil demon spoke in a voice that sounded almost as ancient as time itself. Then, he smiled.

Suddenly, he punched me and I went flying. It was so powerful, it knocked me back against the wall of a stonebrick house. I groaned in pain, being knocked into old, unaligned stonebricks didn't exactly feel good.

"STEVEN!" Emily screamed, then Herobrine pick her up by the scruff of her shirt. Then, I was filled with anger instead of fear. I got up, completely enraged. This man had already taken my sister away once, I wasn't going to let him take her away again.

"Don't you touch my sister!" I growled as I drew my sword. I ran at him, not even feeling the pain from my uncomfortable landing anymore.

"Ooooo..." Herobrine mocked and looked at me.

He dropped Emily. I charged at him and slashed at the demon. He dodged to the right. Then, Stephanie and Jacob charged from the left and right at him as well. He swung both his arms back, and they both flew back. They landed about 16 blocks away, looking dazed. I swung my blade downwards, then upwards. Herobrine jumped back. I kept swinging my sword at him. He kept dodging. He smiled wickedly, then swung his fists at me. I dodged the first swing, then the second, but on the third swing, he hit me square in the stomach and it knocked me back about 5 blocks in the air and 8 blocks back. The punch knocked the air out of my lungs. I was disoriented. Herobrine slowly walked up to me. Then suddenly, I was pressed against a wall of a house by a fist. Herobrine slowly lifted me into the air in a painful grip on my throat. I couldn't help but stare at his evil soul-less eyes. He stared straight at me. I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating to death this time! His eyes were filled with malice and hatred. They filled me with fear. My previous burst of anger was gone, replaced by pure terror. He tightened his grip, and my vision was fading white. Everything was turning fuzzy. Suddenly, Herobrine jerked to the side like he was tackled. Then, I realized he was. By a familiar blurry shade of green. Herobrine let go of my neck and I fell to the ground, gasping for breath and coughing horribly. My eyesight slowly returned to normal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Astley holding his ground against the demon.

"There's a reason why creepers can't fight!" Herobrine laughed menacingly. He then summoned a pure black sword. It appeared to be made of obsidian. Then, faster than lightning, the monster ran at Mr. Astley. Before the creeper could even react, Herobrine stabbed Mr. Astley in the side, then slammed his elbow against the poor creeper's head, knocking him against the wall of a house. He fell over, limp as a rag doll as the house, already weak from the previous barrage of meteors collapsed on him.

Stephanie screamed, "MR. ASTLEY!" Then, she got up, and charged the ex-hero with loathing anger in her eyes. The ex-hero's smile faded. He let her run up to him. His sword dissolved into smoke. As soon as she got within striking distance, she raised her iron sword, poised to strike, and brought it down. The ex-hero's smile then returned as he did the unthinkable. As the blade came down upon him, he took a step back and grabbed the sword with both of his hands pressing against the two sides of the blade. Stephanie's eyes widened as he held her sword by the blade in one hand, then stomped on her foot and punched her with his free hand, knocking her against Emily's brick house, where she went limp, hopefully unconsious, not dead. Then, Herobrine turned to face me.

"Steve, because I am feeling generous, I will allow you to live for today. But you can never defeat me, even if Notch allows it to happen. I am Darkness and you... you are nothing." Then, the ex-hero vanished into black smoke.

Suddenly, I fell on one knee in pain. I put my hand up to the source of my pain... my neck. It felt like my neck was in the way of two pistons pressing against each other and that was from the lightest touch.

"Ooww..." I moaned.

"STEPHANIE!" Jacob yelled as he ran over to Stephanie.

Then I remembered that Stephanie and Mr. Astley were seriously hurt. I ran towards the partially collapsed house, knowing that Stephanie would never forgive me if I didn't save Mr. Astley first. I dug through the wreckage of the house until I saw a green leg sticking out of the rubble. I started digging faster around the leg and found the rest of the body. I saw a wound in Mr. Astley's side. Surrounding the wound was a liquid that was yellow and probably his blood. The creeper looked at me. He must have regained conciousness or he never really passed out at all, but he was obviously in huge pain. I decided to try to comfort him the best I could.

"There, there. It's okay, everything's going to be alright Mr. Astley." I assured. The creeper hissed. I couldn't understand him, but I gave it a shot.

"Stephanie's going to be fine." I promised. The creeper just hissed back and then closed his eyes. I turned to looked at Jacob.

"We need to hurry. Mr. Astley can't hold out much longer." I pointed out.

"As soon as I get Stephanie-" Jacob was cut off by Emily.

"Let me help you." Emily requested.

"Okay. Steve, you go on ahead. Mr. Astley's in more trouble than Steph anyways. We'll catch up." Jacob ordered.

"Alright." Without another word, I lifted up Mr. Astley and ran off in search of Dr. Jefferey.

When I finally his house, which oddly enough was untouched, I pounded on the door and prayed to Notch he was home. A few moments later, I was about to leave when the door opened. A elderly man wearing a white lab coat stood at the door.

"What's wrong?" He asked as if he didn't hear the event that just took place a moment ago. His voice sounded gravelly and low-pitched. He wore glasses over his eyes. He noticed the creeper in my arms and gasped.

"Oh dear Notch!"

"Can you help him?" I asked.

"I can try. Come on, follow me. Hurry." He ran off.

After I followed him for a few minutes, he stopped in front of a house I recognized. It was the house I woke up in when I first got here.

"Come in." The doctor urged. I ran inside. When I went inside, I noticed a bed.

"Put him there." The doctor said. I obliged and set him down on the bed.

After a few minutes of waiting for the doctor to do tests and observe the incapacitated creeper, he looked at me.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked. I was scared. The creeper had just saved my life. I hoped I had saved his.

"He'll be fine." The doctor said. I was relieved.

"Thank Notch."

"But he'll need stitches and a lot of rest." Doctor Jefferey informed. Just then, Jacob and Emily caught up carrying Stephanie.

"Doctor, Stephanie's hurt as well. Can you help her?" Emily asked.

"Sure." He examined her, then wrote a few things down in his book. Finally, he looked back at them.

"Good news, she's appears to be fine. Just a bad foot, but other than that, she'll be fine. Her condition's a lot better than the creeper's, at least." the doctor confirmed.

"Good." Jacob calmed down. Then, he noticed the creeper, "What about Mr. Astley's condition?"

"He'll live." Doctor Jefferey assured.

"That's wonderful." Jacob cheered.

"They just need a small dose of a potion of regeneration mixed with a potion of strength. Plus, a night of rest for them and they should be up and going. Now exactly, what happened?" the doctor asked.

"Didn't you hear all the commotion outside?" Jacob questioned.

"Commotion? Nothing happened otherwise I would've heard it." Doctor Jefferey replied.

"What do you mean, 'nothing happened'? The whole village just got peppered with fireballs!" Jacob protested. Doctor Jefferey just had a confused look on his face.

"No it didn't." He headed over to the door and opened it. Then, he poked his head out, took a look outside, and brought his head back.

"The village is fine. Come look." Jacob went up to the window and looked.

"Impossible! The village was just in flames!" Emily and I headed to different windows and looked outside. Emily gasped in shock and I saw why. The village which was just half destroyed, looked perfectly new. There wasn't any sign of a previous attack. All the houses were perfectly still with no wreckage.

"How is that possible?" I was shocked.

"See what I mean, the village is fine." the doctor repeated.

"But there's no way..." Jacob stuttered.

"Are you guys alright?" Doctor Jefferey asked, concerned, "Have you had enough sleep over the past few days?"

"Don't you act like we're insane Jefferey! Herobrine was just out there, and he tried to kill Steve!" Jacob growled. Suddenly, he grabbed the scruff of the doctor's coat and brought the doctor's face up to his. I realized Jacob was losing control of his anger. Emily and I ran to Jacob and tried to pull his arms off the doctor. He kept struggling against us. I tried to talk to him.

"Jacob! Pull yourself together!" Jacob still struggled, "Come on, calm down!" Then, Jacob dropped the doctor, took a deep breath and settled down. After a few minutes of calming down, Jacob spoke, "Look Doctor Jefferey, I'm so sorry for snapping at you. I just lost it for a moment there." Jacob said apologetically.

"It's okay, I understand how upsetting it can be. Especially after 'the Incident'." There was that phrase again. I wondered what could've happened during 'the Incident' that shook the village up so badly.

"So when should we come back for them?" Emily asked.

"Give them a few days to a week of rest. That oughta do it."

"Alright. We'll be back in a few days." Jacob turned to look at us. He then spoke again, "Well, lets be off." We headed out.

After we left the house, Jacob turned to me, "What did that demon mean about Notch 'allowing you to defeat him'?" He interrogated.

"I have no idea, honest." I answered. I didn't understand what Herobrine said. It didn't make sense to me.

"Did you understand anything he said, anything at all?"

"No. Nothing makes sense to me. Nothing at all." I answered. Jacob sighed.

"Well, I got nothing. But we all saw that event take place, didn't we?" Emily and I both nodded.

"Good, I'm not crazy... not yet, at least. What if it was a Herobrine Nightmare. I'm going back to my house to study what could've happened. You two... do whatever your generation does these days." Jacob walked back in the direction of his house.

 **Ooo, spooky. So, it was all a dream... I love Herobrine, If I'm gonna be honest, Herobrine was always my favorite antagonist, even though he was changed to be a lot different. I mean, you can still tell it's the same Herobrine when he fights Steve, but the way he's brought into the storyline is way different. He's a ghost tale, a mysterious being who no one knows for sure exists. I love everything about Herobrine in my story-both OG and modern. The modern Herobrine is different in that he has an origin story that isn't just a copy-paste version of someone else's work. Though it is similar, in that he was hunted by the hero after making his action that labelled him a traitor to humanity, the modern version actually genuinely tried to stay on the right side of things the entire time. He's a bad guy because _he_ was the one who was betrayed, not the other way around. Without question, Herobrine has always been the villain I've put the most work into, and I don't think there'll ever be a better rival to the protagonist than him.**


	30. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 6

Chapter 6 The Incident

"So, we missed most our teenagehood together, what do you want to do?" I asked Emily.

"How about we go train at the obstacle course." She walked off, then stopped and looked back at me, "You do know where the course is, right?" She asked.

"Of course! But uh... feel free to go first." I gestured for her to go. She rolled her eyes.

"You are such a noob." She said as she lead the way.

"Hey, don't be that way!" I joked. We headed through the village from the opposite direction of the arena.

After a few minutes of silent and awkward walking, I started to see something. It looked like a race track, but it was covered with obsidian. It was also covered with traps of different varieties ranging from tripwire hooks attached to dispensers obviously filled with arrows or potions to simple TNT buried in the ground with pressure plates on top. 'Alright! Finally something that looks interesting.' I mentally cheered.

Once we arrived there, Emily turned around and spoke.

"The point of the obstacle course is to get to the end before your opponent which in this case will be me. There are points in the game and if you get enough, you can get a prize. There are positive and negative points. For every trap you set off, you lose 1 points. For every trap you avoid, you earn 1 point." She smiled, "Eventually you can get enough points to buy traps for sabotaging the opponent." She explained, "Ready?"

"Uh yeah... I guess."

"Since you would stand no chance otherwise, I won't rig your track."

"Uh... thanks I guess."

We made our way to the starting line. When we got there, Emily crouched in the sneaking position.

"Um... why are you doing that?"

"It is a race to the finish." She repeated.

"Oh right!" I crouched down too.

"Press the button when you're ready."

"What button-oh." I noticed a wooden button at the base of the starting line. Emily pressed hers, so I pressed mine. A note block went off 3 times. Then, I heard a firework go off.

Suddenly, the fences blocking the track moved into the wall. I shot forward, sprinting as fast as I could. After a few seconds, I noticed something sticking out of the wall. As soon as I passed it, I felt my foot brush against something thin and fragile. Then, I realized it was a tripwire hook I saw. Which meant that what I brushed against was... 'Uh oh' I thought just as I ran past a dispenser. All of a sudden, something shot out of the dispenser. I sheltered my face as I heard glass shattering and saw blue-ish particles surrounding me. That dispenser didn't shoot an arrow at me, it threw a potion instead. I started to feel very tired. I began to slow down drastically. It felt like that dispenser shot a potion of slowness at me. I really wish I had that potion of swiftness my mom gave me for my eighth birthday instead of using it a few years ago to get away from a few creepers.

Click... Sssszzzz...

I had been so sidetracked, I stepped on a pressure plate without seeing it. I set off a TNT trap. 'I am definatly not going to get a good score for this' I thought to myself as the TNT exploded right under my feet.

"WAAAAAAHHHH!" I yelled as I flew up 10 blocks. I landed on the rough obsidian with a thud.

"Owww..." I moaned as Emily ran ahead.

"NOOB!" She playfully shouted at me.

I got back up and starting running again. The slowness effect wore off, but I became just as exhausted as when I first got the effect. I started panting heavily when suddenly, I stepped through another tripwire. This one opened a chamber that released two skeletons who were quick to notice me and started nocking their bows and aimed at my face. The moment they shot their arrows, I ducked and the arrows sailed straight over my head. I ran past both of them and got in front of both. Then, the other one, who was behind the first skeleton looking at me, fired another arrow and accidentally hit its ally. I swore skeletons hit each other on purpose. The other skeleton turned around and shot back at its attacker. Soon they both were shooting each other and didn't care about me anymore.

"See you later, skellies!" I taunted, then continued running.

I noticed the finish and I sped up. Suddenly, a jukebox played a song. It sounded like it was from the music disc called, 'cat', the song every creeper hates. I looked over for Emily. She had reached the finish line first and won. I slowed to a stop. She waved for me to come over. I walked there so I wouldn't pass out from exhaustion. Emily walked up to a different kind of dispenser. It was a dropper. A scoreboard showed up on a huge wall of what looked like hardened clay blocks. It appeared to be calculated by sticky pistons.

Emily Bonus Points: Trap 1 Cleared Trap 2 Cleared Trap 3 Cleared Score: 3 points Steve Bonus Points: Trap 1 Failed Trap 2 Failed Trap 3 Failed Score: -3 The dropper suddenly dropped something. It looked like a block of gold. Emily picked the block up.

"Nice." She smiled as she stuffed it in her bag. She then looked at me.

"Well, why don't we set off?"

I was ready to go, so we headed off. On the way back, I kept thinking about everything that happened today. But, my mind kept coming back to one question. 'What happened during the Incident?' my mind kept thinking. Finally, I couldn't stand it.

"What is 'the Incident' everyone keeps talking about?"

"Well what happened was a few weeks ago, at night, there was an attack on our village. There were mobs all around the village. There were hundreds of zombies and skeletons, and dozens of creepers, spiders, endermen and witches. We had to make dozens of Iron Golems and they still all died. Well, all except for Irony, that is. It still took everyone to slay them all but we had a lot of lives lost. Jacob's parents weren't spared and neither was... David..." She started to tear up but stopped herself, "I'm sorry. Anyway, the next day, we tried to repair what was left of the village when, out of nowhere that man, who I know now was Herobrine, appeared in the middle of our village and claimed that he caused that army of mobs to attack us and said that he would be back to finish us off. A few days later, we mourned the people whose lives were lost that night." She started crying again. I wondered who that David guy was. She made it sound like they were close friends or something. But I decided not to ask seeing how sad it made her just by mentioning his name. She continued on, "Anyway, it was a horrible night. I hope Herobrine was bluffing about returning to finish us all." I did too, but I had a feeling he wasn't.

"Hey, I know what we can do." I said, hoping to change the subject, "How about we see which one of us is a better sword fighter... just like old times?"

"Why not?" We headed towards the arena.

After several more minutes of walking in that aggravating silence, we made it to the arena. I noticed four other people sparring with each other, ignoring us. We walked over to the center of the arena.

"Ready?" Emily asked.

"You know I am." I replied. We drew our swords and crossed them.

"May the best sword fighter win." Emily announced. Then, we uncrossed our swords and training began.

I held my sword across my chest waiting for my sister to make a move. I was determined not to lose as I already lost to Stephanie. I didn't want to lose my sister. That would just be humiliating.

Suddenly, she swung her sword towards my leg. I blocked it with my own sword. Then, she thrusted it at my gut. I deflected the strike. Then, I began to attack back. I swung at her hip, but she quickly blocked it. Then, she counterattacked by swinging at my chest. I quickly blocked. I was about to counter-counterattack when suddenly, I noticed she was distracted. I wanted to win but I wanted to win fair-and-square, so I waited for her to focus back on me. But she wouldn't. She kept staring at the arena entrance. Then, she muttered, "Oh no. Not them again..." I was confused so I looked over at the arena entrance as well.  
Three guys stood at the entrance, two appeared to be blocking it. The rest of the people practicing noticed the strange trio. Then, fear shown on their faces. They seemed afraid of the three people. The three dressed in a unique style. The one on the left was dressed in a purple leather shirt, green pants and blue shoes. The one on the right wore a purple leather shirt, yellow pants and grey shoes. The one in front of both of them appeared to be the leader. He wore a purple leather shirt, red pants and brown boots. He seemed to radiate confidence and he had the look of someone who would hurt others just to get what he wanted. I hated him instantly. He began talking.

"It feels good to be back in this pitiful town!" The man exclaimed, "So many things to take. It's been so long since I took from you people." He continued with a smile. Then, he looked straight at me.

"What's this? A noobie?" He walked over to me. I really didn't like this guy. Whoever he was, he had definately been here before. He stopped right in front of me.

"Interesting." He said as he observed me, "What's your name, noobie?" He asked me.

"Steve..." I snapped. This guy was aggitating me.

"Steve..." Emily warned.

"Ooooo, quite a feisty one." The man laughed, "Tell you what, Steve. I like your attitude. I might consider letting you join my gang if you can prove yourself." He offered, "If not, well, you look like you have a lot of nice stuff on you. And me and my boys are ah... a little low on resources." The gang leader stated. My mouth went dry at the thought of being mugged. But I wasn't about to join anything that had to do with hurting people.

"What's your name?" I asked the gangster. He smiled.

"Well, I suppose it's only fair for me to introduce myself. I am Jordan (This is a note from the author of this fanfic, I have nothing against Captain Sparklez or anyone named Jordan. You guys are probably cool), Leader of the Enders' Blade Gang and thief extraordinaire. And those two suckers..." He pointed to the two gang members blocking the entrance, "... are Ettin and Vortex."

"Well Jordan, I decline." I chose. Jordan's smile faded.

"Did you hear me? You'll get robbed if you refuse."

"I'm not interested in your gang."

"You're kidding me."

"Steve..." Emily warned. She looked at me as if to say, "Be nicer!"

"No. The answer is no." I persisted.

"A shame. You could've been a good member to our gang." He turned to the other members, "Get him." They started coming closer.  
Suddenly, one of the other four people began to run. The gang leader didn't notice until the person, a girl, was halfway to the entrance. Then he noticed.

"STOP HER!" He yelled to his gang. They looked around, confused, then they noticed the girl. By then, it was too late, she had escaped.

"Grab him!" Jordan snarled as he pointed to me. I tightened my grip on my sword as I prepared for a fight. The two gangsters came at me. I normally wouldn't attack anyone that was weaponless but these people intended to hurt me.

When they got within striking distance, I swung my sword at the green-pants member. He dodged and grabbed for me. I jumped back after making sure the other gangster wasn't behind me. Suddenly, both them grabbed at their pants and pulled out daggers. 'This just got interesting' I thought. Fighting was pretty much the only thing I knew how to do.

I attempted to strike at one, but he deflected it with his knife. The other gangster slashed at me, and I swiftly dodged.

Then, suddenly I felt arms wrap around me. The yellow-pants gang member had grabbed me. Then, the other started to punch me over and over again in the stomach. It really hurt and I couldn't do anything to stop or even lessen the pain.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emily running up to me with her sword in hand. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her by the hair. She screamed in pain.

"Well, who do we have here?" The gang leader picked her up higher.

I felt myself build up anger. I started to feel more powerful. Even the constant punches didn't hurt anymore. My anger maxed out and I let my rage take over.

"Don't you dare TOUCH EMILY!" I yelled, while seeing red all over my vision.

I began to overpower the two gangsters. They groaned in exhaustion as they desperately tried to pin me down. Finally, I got out of their grasp and then I grabbed onto one of them and started to spin around.

When I was spinning as fast as possible, I let go of him and the gangster went twirling around in one direction, struggling to avoid falling down until he hit the wall of the arena.

Then, I looked at the other gangster. He did the smart thing and ran away. Then, I turned around and saw Jordan. He had seen what I did to the others.

"Let go of her NOW!" I yelled at him. Apparently, he was really stupid because of what he said.

"Why don't you make me?" He challenged, smiling.

"I have slain hundreds of mobs, including the Enderdragon and Wither. Don't challenge me." I growled. It took all my willpower not to gut him.

"I don't believe you." He drew his sword. Only, it was not a normal sword, it was completely purple with Ender particles floating around it. I had never seen a sword like it.

"Fight me, I dare you. Or the girl gets it." He challenged me. This time, he held the sword up to Emily's neck. I was so enraged, I charged at him. And he smiled again.

I raised my sword and when I was 5 blocks away, I jumped and swung my sword downward at him. He blocked, but my attack was so strong, when our blades met, my strike overpowered his and his arm was knocked away. I then slashed at his leg but he was not as dazed as he appeared. He blocked that swing, too. Then, he started attacking me. When he swung his sword, it left a purple trail that distracted me. He landed a hit on my arm.  
As soon as the sinister sword cut into my skin, it felt like my skin was filled with Ender acid. I hollered in pain. It hurt so badly, I couldn't focus at all.

Thankfully, it wasn't my right arm, my sword arm that was hurt.

Strike after strike, the gang leader attacked. I kept getting hit. He wasn't trying to kill me anymore. He was hitting me with the flat of his sword. But it still hurt. And he kept hitting me until I was on the ground.

"See? You don't fight the leader of Enders' Blade. Otherwise, I'll destroy you with Enders' Blade." Then he began laughing triumphantly as he walked towards my sister.

"Steve!" She yelled as he grabbed her hair again.

"Now, hand over everything you have." He demanded her, "And I do mean everything!"

Somehow, I don't how or why, but I got back up. I remembered the Emily I couldn't save from the TNT room. Even though that wasn't real, I still felt guilty about it. And I was determined not to let it happen again.

"I said DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER!" I shouted as I ran at him. He turned around and saw me charging at him again.

"Looks like you want more. Come and get some." He got his sword ready. He began to laugh again but didn't get the chance to finish because I jump-striked him, this time slashing my sword sideways instead of downwards. He blocked, but intead of blocking vertically, he accidentally blocked horizontly. My sword ran across his chest and he roared in pain. He glared at me with hatred in his eyes.

"Now, you will die Steve!" He growled.

Suddenly, he ran at me and slashed down. I brought my blade sideways and blocked it. But he kept moving forward until I was pressed against the wall. Whoever was stronger would overpower the other, I realized. I struggled as he moved closer, bringing his mystical sword and mine closer to my neck. I groaned in exhaustion. This reminded me of all those zombies piling up on me. I felt adrenaline pumping to my arms. 'I wasn't going to be overpowered again, I was not!' I ordered myself. I felt myself beginning to overpower the gangster's strength. When he was struggling to hold me back, I swung outwards. The gang leader had to jump back to avoid being sliced. Then, I raised my sword and slashed downwards. He was too dazed to avoid this attack. I hit him in the shoulder and he yelled at the top of his lungs in pain.

"You're dead noobie! I will kill you! Maybe not now, but someday, you will be off guard and I will gut you like a fish." Jordan promised.

Then, he got out an enderpearl and threw it outside of the arena and teleported away.

I collapsed in pain. I had no energy left at all. I felt nothing but pain.

"Steve!" Emily ran to me, "Are you okay?"

"Emily, Steve! What happened?" Jacob ran over to us.

"Enders' Blade is what happened." Emily answered.

"Enders' Blade? I had a feeling something was going on. A girl told us Enders' Blade was back! And we have some interrogating to do." Jacob pointed out.

"What do you mean?" I asked weakly.

"We caught a member of the Enders' Blade Gang and we're interrogating him right now." Jacob explained.

 **Did you guys catch that? Maybe you didn't or maybe you did. David, the main character from my new series was mentioned as a good friend of Emily. That's very accurate to the way they are in The Hero's Path. It's quite interesting to see these characters I had initially included in the OG Hero's Hope storyline given their own stories to blossom in. This is all very nostalgic for me tbh. Also, stuff like the obstacle course are very reminiscent of server minigames because back then Minecraft didn't have nearly as much content to make a story out of, so I would often create a minigame for the protagonist to take part in. That's also the reason why I initially started out with writing a story with mods, because I didn't know how to write a story based on the unmodified game itself.**


	31. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 7

Chapter 7 The Undead Pigmen

"What! You caught a member? Which one?" Emily started blurting out questions.

"Whoa! Calm down! And his name is Ettin." Jacob answered. I remembered Ettin as the yellow-panted gangster who wisely ran away from me.

"But exactly what happened? Tell me everything." Jacob told us. Emily explained everything from the obstacle course to the gang leader teleporting away via enderpearl.

"I'm so sorry Steve. I should have told you about that trio of troublemakers earlier." Jacob apologized.

"It's okay. It was no problem."

"Oh, but I fear it will be. The Enders' Blade Gang is not known for breaking promises. I fear their leader will be back and bent on vengeance sooner or later." Jacob worried.

"I've slain hundreds of mobs including the Wither. So you don't need to worry about me. I'm not afraid of a gang leader." I tried to calm the old man.

"We need to interrogate this gang member as soon as possible." Emily pointed out.

"Yes, but before that, I'd advise you go get a quick bite." Jacob suggested. I could've sworn I heard Emily's stomach growl. I realized how hungry I was. I was starving!

"Good idea, Jacob. We'll eat and then interrogate the gang member." Emily agreed.

"Good. You go on ahead. And when you're done, go on by my house." Jacob said. And we headed off towards the village.

As we headed back to the village, Emily started talking again.

"You really shouldn't underestimate the Enders' Blade Gang. They can be quite vicious." Emily stated.

"Then what do you call that?" I referred to what just took place.

"They weren't intending on killing you at first. You just caught them off guard. I don't even know which is worse, Herobrine or Enders' Blade." We continued on until we made it back to the village. Then, we stopped right in front of the first building. It was made out of mossy stonebricks.

"This is the cafeteria. You can buy any type of food here." Emily explained.

We walked inside the facade of the cafe and we took a look at the menus:

1 Apple 2 Iron Ingots or 1 Gold Ingot 1 Melon 1 Iron Ingot 1 Bread 2 Iron Ingots or 1 Gold Ingot 1 Cooked Chicken 3 Iron Ingots or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Cooked Fish 2 Iron Ingots or 1 Gold Ingot 1 Pumpkin Pie 4 Iron Ingots or 3 Redstone Blocks or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Steak or 4 Iron Ingots or 1 Porkchop 3 Redstone Blocks or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Carrot 2 Iron Ingots or 1 Gold Ingot 1 Baked Potato 3 Iron Ingots or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Cake 6 Iron Ingots or 5 Lapis Blocks or 4 Gold Ingots or 3 Redstone Blocks or 2 Emeralds 1 Cookie 1 Iron Ingot 1 Cooked Salmon 3 Iron Ingots or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Milk 1 Iron Ingot 2 Clownfish 1 Iron Ingot 1 Mushroom Soup 3 Iron Ingots or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Golden Carrot 4 Iron Ingots or 2 Gold Ingots or 1 Emerald 1 Golden Apple 16 Iron Ingots or 14 Lapis Blocks or 12 Coal Blocks or 8 Gold Ingots or 6 Redstone Blocks or 3 Emeralds I bought 4 carrots, a baked potato, a steak, 2 apples, a melon slice and a loaf of bread. I carefully placed the food in my bag so I wouldn't crush any of it. I noticed chairs all around the cafe with people sitting in some of them, eating food.

We went to a seat that looked over an ocean biome I never noticed. It was beautiful. I even saw a few villagers swimming in it. I sat in my seat across from Emily. She took out a loaf of bread and began eating it. I took out a baked potato and bit into it. It tasted good, much better than raw potatoes that I used to sometimes eat. After a few bites, I noticed I had finished it off. I was disappointed, I didn't get to taste much of it. I got out an apple and began eating it while looking out the window, being sure to take much smaller bites so I could savor the flavor. It tasted really juicy and delicious. I could tell it had been freshly collected. I noticed there were a lot of squids swimming around in the water. When I finished the apple off, I turned to face Emily. She was eating a carrot. I wanted to ask her who David was from earlier but I just couldn't. I turned back to the window. I threw the core out the window onto the ground. Then I got out a watermelon slice and began nibbling on it. It tasted so watery and good. Within minutes, I had eaten the whole thing, minus the shell which I also threw out onto the ground. Better to return it to the ground.

"So, what do you think of our village?" Emily asked.

"It's alright. See Emily, I just knew a village could've survived 'that night'." I bragged. She rolled her eyes.

"Please, you didn't know anything. It's just luck that we found a village and each other."

"I don't know about that." I remembered my dream of the servants of Notch talking about the two 'girls'. It would make sense if Emily was one of them. But who was the other?

We went back to eating our lunch. I got out a carrot and started eating it. It tasted sweet and moist. I finished it in about 5 bites. I waited for Emily to finish her cooked chicken.

"You ready?" I asked her once she finished.

"Ready." She grabbed her bag and I grabbed mine. We then got up and started to head out.

The food was so good, I had to buy some extras. I bought a pumpkin pie, two more apples, another carrot, a cooked fish, two more melon slices, a glass of milk, another loaf of bread, two porkchops and a golden apple, which all wiped out my collection of emeralds. Then, we headed off.

As we headed to Jacob's house, I thought the gang leader. He seemed to mean what he said about trying kill me. I had a feeling I was going to see him again.  
When we made it to his house, I went to open the door. When I opened the door, suddenly, I saw Herobrine, standing in the doorway, smiling. I quickly stumbled backwards and fell on the gravel road.

"Steve!" Emily ran to me and helped me up, "Are you okay?"

"I-I saw He-Herobrine!" I stuttered.

"Where?" I pointed to the doorway. Emily looked at it.

"Steve, there's no one there." She stated. I looked back and sure enough, he was gone.

"But, I saw him. He was just standing there, staring at me!" I stammered. Just then, Jacob came in the doorway.

"Jacob, we were just headed to your-" She was cut off.

"No time! Zombie Pigmen in the village!" Jacob interrupted.

"Wait! What?" Emily asked. I remembered the undead pigmen from the Nether. They were normally neutral, but if you attacked one in a colony... I shuddered at the bad memory. I barely survived the retaliation. How I survived involved a tower of netherack, a bow and a whole lot of arrows.

"Hurry! There's no time to waste!" Jacob hurried outside and we followed him through the village.

We followed him, I started to see a familiar pink rotting figure. 'A Zombie Pigman!' I thought. It was running after a big-nosed villager, swinging its golden sword about. The villager kept running away. I decided to help to villager and I ran after the pigman. The villager ran into a dead end and was trapped. The zombie, seeing it had caught the villager, was taking its time, walking up to the villager and raised its sword above its decayed head. I approached it and it noticed me. I swung at it with my sword and knocked it out. Then, I saw another and yelled to Emily and Jacob, who had noticed me.

"Go on ahead! I got these ones!" Jacob nodded and ran ahead. Emily went on, looked back at me, then followed Jacob.

I ran over to the other Pigman, but I was too late. It stabbed a villager in the stomach with its gold sword, then ran after another one. The big-nosed villager collapsed and I knew that he was dead. That gave me more determination to stop the Zombie Pigmen from killing everyone. I chased the Zombie Pigman as fast as I could. When I caught up to it, I got its attention on me. It was squealing aggressively as it tried to anticipate my next attack. Its guard was so high, it probably would never expect me use a simple move. So I went for a stab. Sure enough, its guard was too high and it let me stab it in the lungs, like a snake anticipating an animal catcher's next move. It collapsed and was dead again. I saw a Pigman on the roof, holding a dead villager by the foot and squealing. I got out a bow and shot at it. I shot it in the head, maybe by luck, maybe not. The bow wasn't my preferred weapon but seeing how I couldn't kill it any other way, I had to use it. The undead pig fell of the roof and straight to the ground.

Suddenly, I turned around and a Zombie Pigman ran at me, slashing its gold sword around wildly. I blocked, then kicked its legs. It fell down and I brought down my sword into its head. It gave final moan and died. Then another slashed at me. I jumped backwards into another. Now, I had two on me. I waited for them to make a move. Suddenly, one of them slashed at my feet. I jumped up and dodged the attack. Then, the other Pigman slashed at my head. I ducked then slashed that Pigman's legs in two. It squealed in anger and fell over. The other pig attempted to stab me. I sidestepped and stabbed it in the heart. It fell down, dead. Then returned my attention to the remaining undead pig. It squealed and thrashed around so I put it out of its misery by stabbing its head. Then, I noticed what must have been the center of town was filled with Zombie Pigmen. I got out my bow and started shooting at them while slowly making my way to them.

Once I got over to the colony of undead pigs, I put away my bow and got my sword back out. Then, I noticed a huge Zombie Pigman in the center of all the choas. It wore a crown made of gold on its head and it held two massive swords in both hands. I got my sword ready and ran through the horde of Zombie Pigmen, slashing their heads off until I reached their leader. Then, I jumped up and brought my sword towards the undead pig king's face. It noticed me and crossed its swords just in time for my sword get caught on its swords. It roared in my face, then threw me back onto a building. I landed with a thud. I groaned in pain. I got up and looked at the sun. Except there was no sun. There was a moon instead. I didn't realize it had turned night. Then, a faint purple light caught my attention. I looked towards the strange light. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a Nether Portal. Right behind the Pigman King was a portal to hell, literally. I decided to get down from the building when I had a great idea. I searched in my bag for one. 'I have to have one, please.' I thought to myself. Then I found what I was looking for. An enderpearl. Now I can teleport to the Pigman king and hopefully catch it off guard. I aimed it at the Zombie Pigman King and threw it. I was careful not to accidentally throw it into the portal.

A couple seconds later, the world changed around me as I warped right in front of the king. It squealed in surprise as I stabbed my sword at its head. It made contact and then I heard a thunk as my blade went through its huge head.

"WRRRREEEEEEEE!" It squealed as I dug my sword deeper into its skull. It began to slash its swords wildly, taking out dozens of Zombie Pigmen in the process.  
Finally, it started to fall. I quickly jumped off it. Then, I looked at it. It fell, dead. The other Zombie Pigmen looked at their dead leader turning to smoke and started snorting up a storm. Then, they all started running back into the portal. Within minutes, they were all gone.

Emily and Jacob ran up to me. They looked at the portal.

"Is that..." Emily started.

"Yes, it is." Jacob answered, "A Nether Portal. A portal that will take anyone who enters it into the deadliest place of all... the Nether. We need to destroy it before anything else comes out."

"I'm on it." Emily said as she placed a block of TNT down. Then, she ignited it with flint and steel, then the flint and steel broke.

"Guess there's no using that anymore." Emily pointed out.

"Stay back." Jacob warned. Suddenly, something huge and white appeared in the portal frame and reach its tentacles out.

"A GHAST!" Jacob yelled, "RUN!" He shouted. The Ghast grabbed at anything that moved. Suddenly, the ghast grabbed me with its white tentacles and pulled me in.

"STEEEVVVEEENN!" I heard Emily scream as I was pulled into the portal. I then heard the sound of the TNT exploding and all I saw was purple.

 **REEEEEEEE! I totally called that meme before it happened. I'm like a hipster lol. Anyways, yes, I did rip that pigman fight scene straight from the Take Back The Night music video, at least most of it. Makes me happy that I decided to rewrite everything the story was, despite not being able to finish it.**


	32. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Trials of Fire

Fire...

That was all I could see in the Nether. Fire and lava... and a big fat Ghast that wanted to eat me alive.

It made weird sounds as it grabbed me and dragged me through the portal. The landscape changed completely. The Ghast let go of me and I flew out of the portal onto a rough and warm ground.

I groaned and got up. Suddenly, a fire ball flew past my head, and I remembered the Ghast that brought me here. I looked up and saw it flying countless blocks away. I got out my bow and arrows and aimed at it. It spat out a fireball and I shot back at it. The arrow went flying towards the massive fireball. The moment it made contact, the arrow burnt up but it was enough to reverse the course of the fireball. The massive ball of fire went sailing back at the Ghast and the white demon let out a ghastly (Get it?) cry as it got struck by its own fireball and died, turning into smoke. I saw its tears fall onto a mountain of netherrack.

Suddenly, I remembered the portal. I quickly looked back at it. The portal was deactivated. Which meant I was stuck here until someone reactivated the portal. I hit myself in the head for my stupidity, 'If I didn't kill that Ghast right away, I could have tricked it into reigniting the portal.' 'It's okay,' I reassured myself, 'Someone from Minecraftia just has to light the portal frame back up.'

I looked around landscape. There was netherrack as far as the eye could see. I went over to the ledge of the mountain I was on. There was a vast ocean of lava covering the lower half of the Nether. I sighed and went back to the portal frame. I sat down against the portal and waited for something to happen. And I waited. And waited. And waited. I brought my head down. This might take longer than I expected.

All of a sudden, I saw a man standingin front of me staring straight at me. I realized it was Herobrine. I felt my pulse getting faster by the second. I tried to crawl back further but realized I was leaning against the portal frame. Then, Herobrine opened his mouth and spoke.

Emily's POV

"STEEEVVVEEENN!" I cried as the Ghast grabbed Steven and yanked him in through the portal. Seconds later, the TNT exploded, destroying the only gateway to the Nether. I ran over to the portal frame and started hitting it over and over, hoping something would happen.

"Emily! Calm down!" Jacob yelled as he ran up to me and tried to pry me away from the portal.

"Steven! No! Why did this have to happen!" I cried as I kept trying to run back to the portal, "NOTCH! Why would you do this?" I looked up and screamed.

"Emily! It's okay! We can reactivate the portal! We just need more flint and steel!" Jacob reassured. I stopped crying and looked at him.

"Where can we get some more?" I snifled.

"We can use the road." Jacob pointed to the road made of gravel, "We can get the flint from the gravel. And I have iron ingots with me right now." I stopped crying.

So we started digging up the gravel road. After I dug up 5 blocks of gravel, I found a small piece of flint in the gravel pile.

"I got one." I called to Jacob. He stopped and walked over to me. I handed it to him and he took it and brought out an iron ingot. We went over to the obsidian portal and he started striking them together. After a few strikes, he produced a spark that was big enough to start a fire. It fell onto the portal frame. We waited a couple seconds for the portal to activate, but it never did. Jacob looked at me, shocked, then tried again. It didn't activate. He then tried one more time but to no avail. Then, the flint broke.

Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and gasped. Jacob turned around as well. Herobrine was staring at us, with a maniacal smile on his face.

"Herobrine! Depart, you evil demon! You have no business here!" Jacob hollered at the demon. Herobrine just smiled even more.

"Give it up! Are you really that stupid to think I would let that arrogant mortal leave my realm that easily?" Herobrine's eyes got even brighter, "You are foolish beyond belief."

"What have you done to Steven!" I yelled at the demon, "And why are you bothering us? We never did anything to you!" I continued.

"I had the Nether portal enchanted so that it can only be activated from the Nether side. It's impossible to activate it any other way." Herobrine vanished.

We turned around and saw him standing in the portal frame, "Now that puny human will perish in my precious realm and the prophecy will never come true. And once I overthrow Notch, I will rule all of Minecraftia." Herobrine laughed. Then, without another word, the ex-hero vanished into black smoke that soon dissolved in the night sky. I turned to Jacob.

"What do we do? What will happen to Steven?" I asked him.

"I guess we wait. As for what happens to Steve, that remains to be seen."

Steve's POV

Herobrine opened his mouth and began to speak.

"You cannot escape my realm Steve. The only way you can return to your world now and be reunited with your sister is to light the portal yourself." Herobrine informed, "Which I have full faith that you will die in the process. You stand no chance against my minions, especially with me hunting you down." Herobrine said darkly, "However, since I am enjoying your fear, I won't kill you now." He vanished, then reappeared right in my face. He looked like he could watch people die in agony and that smile wouldn't waver, "No, instead, I'll give you a headstart, and when you least expect it, I will hunt you down until I catch you. And then, I will kill you." That last part reminded me of the last thing the leader of the Enders' Blade Gang promised me.

Then, Herobrine vanished again and reappeared back where he was previously standing. "You better be on guard at all times, Steve. Or else, you may just die to my minions and I'll never get to kill you myself." I worked up the courage and looked at the demon straight in the eyes.

"Why Herobrine... Why are you doing this to me? What have I done that made you hate me and want me to suffer so much?" Herobrine just chuckled. Then, he eyed me back.

"Two reasons. One: You are a human. And two: You are prophesized to stop my plans. So you must die." And with that, Herobrine vanished and didn't reappear.

I realized that if what Herobrine said was the truth, then I wouldn't be getting much help from my friends. I was going to have to activate the portal myself. But how? Then I remembered a rumor I heard when I was young. It was rumored that if a Nether portal was somehow deactivated while someone was in the Nether, they could reactivate it using a fire charge, which was made of blaze powder, gunpowder and coal.

I looked in my bag for at least one of those. I had torches but no coal. No gunpowder either. Blaze powder? Definitely not. I wished that Mr. Astley was here. Maybe he could somehow spit out some gunpowder. Then I remembered Mr. Astley didn't have any gunpowder. So he wouldn't have been much help in terms of getting home. I thought about the Ghast I killed. 'What if the Ghast dropped some gunpowder?' I thought excitedly as I hurried to where the Ghast tear fell. The gunpowder had to be in that general area.

After a few minutes of climbing down my mountain then up the other mountain, I reached the peak and saw the Ghast tear. I went over to it, picked it up then placed it my bag. A few blocks away, I saw a pile of powdery grey dust on the ground. I looked at it. It was gunpowder. I walked over to it and tried to pick up as much of it as I could. 1 down, 2 to go. I put it in a empty bottle I had in my bag. When I saw the bottle, I felt my horribly dry throat. Then, I felt another painful sensation in my throat. I remembered how I got the second pain. It was from when Herobrine nearly choked me to death. It was hard to believe that happened just this morning. Or yesterday. I realized there was no actual sun or moon in the Nether. A day could've passed since I was brought here for all I knew. My clock kept spinning around wildly. There was no way of knowing the time here.

I dug through my bag for a water bottle, I remembered packing at least two. I found one at last and took it out. I looked at the clear blue liquid. It looked so out of place in this everburning place. I took a drink of the cool, refreshing drink. Instantly, the pain in my throat lessened. Now, there was just the bruised pain in my throat that hurt but I just ignored it.

I decided to try and look for a Nether Fortress. After all, Blazes and Wither Skeletons thrive in those kinds of places. And they drop blaze powder and coal.

Once I got down the mountain, I looked around for a nearby Fortress. There were none in sight. I sighed, 'Figures that demon wouldn't make this easy.'

I decided to leave a trail of some sort. I looked through my bag for something dispenseable. I found a lot of iron ingots. 'No, too important.' Then I found a crafting table. Talk about being prepared! 'Wait! With the iron I can make armor!' I realized. I placed down the crafting table and took out the iron ingots. I put them in place and a few seconds later, they began to meld together until they shaped into a chestplate. Then, I shaped more into a upside-down cauldron, turning it into leggings. Next, I made the helmet. When I made that, I moved onto the boots.

When I finished the armor, I began to put it on. I started with the boots, then moved onto the leggings, after that was the chestplate, then I put on my helmet. Finally, I was ready to go. I looked through my bag again for something I could use as a trail. I found a bunch torches. I counted them.

After a few minutes of counting, I reached 128 torches, two whole stacks. 'Holy Notch! Why would I need so many?' I thought to myself, 'Oh well, how convienent.' I placed one down at the foot of the netherrack mountain. And I headed off.

I traveled about 70 blocks from the portal, placing the torches at 20-block intervals, when I ran into my first Zombie Pigman. Fortunately, it was neutral, so it didn't bother me. I definately wasn't going to bother it, seeing how many Zombie Pigman were around me. It appeared to have forgotten that I killed their leader or maybe it didn't care. Maybe it wasn't even from the same colony. I walked next to it. The Pigman just stared at me, then walked away. I placed down another torch. I walked some more until I noticed a little Zombie Pigman. I walked towards it. I stopped when I was 3 blocks away from it.

It is believed everytime a pig dies, it is reincarnated into a Zombie Pigman in the Nether. If they were killed as a baby, they end up a baby Zombie Pigman. It was so little, I wondered what heartless creature would kill a baby pig. 'Herobrine, maybe' I thought. I shook the idea. He probably wouldn't lower himself to kill a pig. I felt bad for the baby Piglett. I don't know why, but I looked through my bag and pulled out a carrot. The baby Zombie Pigman looked at me. 'Why am I doing this,' I criticized myself, 'I need all the food I have. They don't even need to eat, they're already dead.' The baby Zombie Pigman ran up to me. I dropped the carrot at its feet... or hooves. The baby Pigman then squealed in delight, dropped its sword and picked up the carrot. Then, it began to eat it.

After a couple seconds, it had finished the carrot and went over to my leg and hugged it. I was shocked, I didn't know Zombie Pigmen were capable of showing affection. It let go and I grabbed my stuff that was on the ground.

I had set off once again and had only walked a few blocks before the baby Pigman snorted, picked up its sword and ran after me. I turned around and looked it. It looked back up at me.

"No, you can't come with me." I told it, hoping it could understand me. I then set off again but, after walking a few more blocks, it ran after me again. I turned around and sighed.

"I said no, you can't follow me! It's too dangerous." I pointed out. Then, once again, I walked ahead. After walking about 10 blocks, I turned around. The pig was still following me! I ran up to an outcrop of netherrack and little undead Pigman followed me. I pointed to the outcropping and told the little Pigman, "Look, stay there! It's too dangerous for you where I'm going. Just stay there and don't follow me, please!" The other Zombie Pigmen looked at me and held their swords as if warning, 'you better not hurt that piglett or else.' and I got the message. I really didn't want the zombified Piglett to get hurt and I intended to make no friends with mobs of the Nether realm. The pig looked at the netherrack outcropping, then looked back at me and snorted. It ran over to the spot I was pointing at and stayed. I sighed again and began to head off. I watched the baby Zombie Pigman as I walked, making sure it wouldn't follow me. It stayed the whole time. Then I jumped down a ledge and it didn't follow me.

I walked for about an hour, placing down torches at 25-block intervals when I used up a stack of torches. I was starting to worry. 'What if I run out of torches?' My always hopeful conscience decided to blurt out. "Then, I'm screwed." I replied out loud before realizing it. Yep, I was definately losing it. My throat was drying up for the fifth time that hour and I dug around in my bag for the nearly empty water bottle. I felt it and grabbed it out of my bag and looked at it. There was only about an inch of water left in the bottle. After that, I had two more bottles of water, but I still didn't like the odds. I could travel forever and never find a Nether Fortress. On that happy thought, I drank the rest of the water bottle. The water despite being in a world of fire for so long, tasted like a delicacy. Coolness washed over my throat and it stopped its painful complaining. 'That should last me about 12 minutes' I thought to myself. The Nether seemed to speed up the rate I get dehydrated by 5 times.

Suddenly, I noticed a dark colored structure. My mouth went dry which hurt my throat. 'Can it be?' I thought as I began to walk faster. It looked like a... Nether Fortress.

"YES! I found one! I finally found one! YES! Finally!" I cheered as I ran faster than ever to the intersecting fortress. Then, I stopped once I realized how hard it was going to be. I had to kill at least one Blaze and at least one Wither Skeleton and the Fortress was probably crawling with them, not to mention with Herobrine stalking me. Even though I was in the Nether, I got chills at the thought of that demon watching me. I turned around and looked for that ex-hero. A Zombie Pigman walked out from behind a column of netherrack and into a lava flow. I wondered if lava to Nether mobs was like water to us Minecraftians. I didn't see the demon anywhere, but suddenly I heard a Ghast chuckling and flying around. I placed down a torch, and ran into the impending fortress.

After placing torches on the walls and wandering for about 5 minutes, I was hopelessly lost. I ran past hallways, not even stopping to rest. I was being chased by Magma Cubes and Wither Skeletons. Thankfully, Blazes were far too slow, but I still ran. This reminded me of when I was 13, running with my sister from mobs. I wondered how she was doing right now in Minecraftia. I hoped she wasn't too upset, seeing how I was in the Nether and stuff, but she probably was. I risked a glance back. There was a Wither Skeleton and a little Magma Cube. There weren't that many mobs so I decided to fight them. I stopped and turned to face them.

The Wither Skeleton slashed at me and I blocked. I swung my sword at it and it rattled in pain. I slashed at it agained and it flew at the wall with a thud. It then dissolved into black smoke instead of white smoke. I assumed it was because it was a Netherborn mob. I then turned my attention towards the little Magma Cube. Even though it was small, it could still hurt me by touching me with its superheated body temperature. I stabbed it and it died.

Suddenly, I saw the tip of a stone sword erupt from my chestplate, which fell apart. I stared at the tip in shock and then felt the worst pain I ever felt by far. 'The Wither Effect' I thought as I fell on the ground. I saw the culprit standing over me. It was a Wither Skeleton that must have seen me fighting the other mobs. It lifted its sword over my head and raised it. 'Well, this is it, this is where I die...' I thought to myself as the Wither Skeleton raised its sword over its skull and prepared to stab me in the head. Even if I already died and was brought back to life once, I doubted it was going to happen again.

As I waited for the Wither Skeleton to end my life, I closed my eyes. After a moment, I thought I heard bones rattling and a squeal. I opened my eyes. The skeleton was gone. I looked around and saw to my left, a familiar baby Zombie Pigman attacking the Wither Skeleton. The Wither Skeleton was trying to hit it but kept missing due to the piglett's small size. After a few hits on the Wither Skeleton, the baby Zombie Pigman reduced it to dark smoke. Then, it ran towards me. I blinked, I couldn't believe it. The baby Zombie Pigman had saved my life. That's two mobs who'd saved my life now. It ran to my bag, looked through it, took out a couple carrots, looked at them, then snorted and tossed them away. After a few more seconds, it took out a new item. A Golden Apple. I remembered buying it and was instantly glad I did. I looked down at my chest, it had a big hole in it, and it was still withering away! I began to panic. The undead Piglett rolled the apple to me and snorted again. I tried to move my arm and it throbbed with pain. I persisted, knowing that the only thing that could combat the Wither Effect and heal me at the same time was a Golden Apple. I grabbed the divine apple and painfully lifted it to my mouth. I took a bite. It tasted delicious despite being made of gold. Just eating it made me feel stronger. I looked back at my chest. It stopped depixelating and started to knit itself back together. I was overcome with relief. I was going to live after all. My hope of reaching home which was dying out, had returned, stronger than ever. And so had I. I got up, my limbs still hurt from the Withering, but it wasn't anything I couldn't shrug off.

I looked down at the baby Zombie Pigman that had saved my life.

"Thank you, so much." I thanked. The baby Pigman just squealed in happiness. I walked over to the carrots the undead piglett threw away and picked them up. I went back to the Zombie Piglett and handed it one.

"This is for helping me." I said as I gave it to the little Pigman. It grabbed it and ate the carrot, this time taking smaller bites, probably to savor it. I picked up the baby Zombie Pigman and we headed deeper into the maze of the Nether Fortress.

After traveling for about an hour, I found a total of two chests. One of them contained 3 emeralds, 7 gold ingots and golden horse armor. The other contained a new golden chestplate which I took and equipped, iron horse armor, 8 gold ingots, 2 nether warts and 3 more emeralds. I took everything.

After half an hour of traveling later, I found a lone Blaze in a corridor. I killed it, but it didn't drop anything.

"Stupid Blaze." I complained as we continued on.

Finally a few minutes later, I found a hallway with 4 Blazes in it. There was no way I could kill them all without getting lit on fire. I turned to my little companion.

"All right, little buddy. I need your help again." I whispered to the dead Piglett, "Do you think you can kill those Blazes?" I asked. I knew Zombie Pigmen couldn't burn to death. The little Pigman squealed.

"Good. I'm counting on you." I said as I set the little Pigman down.

The baby Zombie Pigman ran around the corner to the hallway the Blazes were at. The Blazes gazed at the newcomer. I watched as the Piglett zombie slashed at one. It made a metallic sound when it was hit. Then, all of them lit on fire. After that, they all shot fire at the little threat. When they finished and the smoke cleared up, one of them had died and the baby Zombie Pigman, completely unfazed, went after another and killed that one, too. Then, I jumped out and startled the remaining Blazes. I ran at the closer one as my little ally attacked the farther one. I stabbed at my Blaze, then remembered that Blazes don't have actual bodies. They just possessed gold blocks and rods of gold. I felt the superheated spirit of the Blazes and barely contained a shout of pain. Then, I stabbed it in the head and it died. I looked over at my ally's Blaze but the Blaze was nothing but smoke. Then, two Wither Skeletons, who were probably patrolling walked into our hall and noticed us. I smiled, these mobs would never learn who the real boss was. We charged at them and raised our swords.

Herobrine's POV

'Interesting. The human tamed a baby Zombie Pigman and is using it to help him through the Fortress. This human is getting more and more interesting by the minute. I was aware he had a Golden Apple, but I was not aware his little pig friend would bring it to him.' I smiled as I watched Steve fighting the Blazes with the Zombie Pigman. 'I heard his heart nearly stop once he was stabbed. Even now, the hero-wannabe is becoming comfortable in the familiar setting of battle. This is not what I wanted. I want his heart to beat with the intensity it was beating with when he first came face-to-face with me.' I smiled even deeper when I remembered the so-called 'prophecy' Notch announced. 'That just proves how desperate Notch is to stop me.' I decided to give this hero-wannabe another good scare just to feel the fear he will release, to hear how fast his heart will beat out panic. I teleported to the Nether Fortress.

Steve's POV

We charged at the Wither Skeletons. When I was close enough, I jumped-striked it and dealt extra damage to the undead skeletal warrior. It slashed at me and I dodged. Then, I slashed at its head and the head went flying until it hit the wall. The Wither Skeleton, apparently still able to function, swung its stone sword wildly. I simply stepped back and it didn't step forward so I stabbed it in the rib cage and broke straight through the bones. It crumpled to dust which evaporated into smoke. I looked at the Zombie Piglett. It dodged its Wither Skeleton's stab then countered with a side slash. The Wither Skeleton exploded into more black smoke which dissolved in the air.

I looked around for coal after remembering why I came here. I noticed some next to a Wither Skeleton head. 'Why didn't the head evaporate into smoke like the rest of the body?' I wondered. I assumed maybe it was a trophy. I went over to the coal, picked it up, put it in my bag, then picked up the skull. With a smile, I remembered the creeper mask I used to wear as a kid. I then looked at the Zombie Piglett. It looked at the Wither Skull in my hand like it was interested in it. I walked over to the tyke and plopped it on its head... or skull, seeing how the Zombie Piglett didn't have any skin on its head. It seemed to like the new mask. I smiled then got up, and continued on. We walked to a corner.

Suddenly, Herobrine showed up at the corner! I stumbled backwards then tripped.

"He-Herobr-brine!" I stuttered. Herobrine's eyes seemed to fill up with even more evil in the Nether.

"Looks like your time is up, Steve..." He laughed darkly.

The little Zombie Pigman ran at him, squealing up a storm. The demon laughed, and grabbed the little creature by the scruff of its neck. The baby Zombie Pigman squealed even louder and started thrashing in the demon's grip. I began to hear a lot of snorting. I quickly wondered how many Zombie Pigmen could live near this Fortress. There could be dozens of undead Pigmen struggling to save their helpless Zombie Piglett tyke. Suddenly, the hallway ceiling began to curve downwards as if there was something heavy on it... or a lot of things on it. The windows soon filled up with pink and green. Herobrine threw the piglett across the hallway and somehow I caught the piglett. A few seconds later, Zombie Pigmen began bursting through the walls. I braced myself, but they weren't coming for me. They were attacking Herobrine.

Finally, the roof gave way and Herobrine, looking downwards and smiling, was trapped in the sea of Pigmen. And I, clutching the baby Zombie Pigman, ran through the hallway.

A few seconds later, the Zombie Pigmen flew back and Herobrine reappeared in the middle of all the choas (What? You thought Herobrine was killed by the Zombie Pigmen? If I tricked you, slap yourself silly until you remember. If I didn't, nice. Only Steve can kill him... hopefully. Don't you remember the hinted prophecy?). A majority of the Zombie Pigmen mob turned to smoke. After I reached a safe distance, I watched the choas unfold.

The ones that didn't die got back up and ran at the ex-hero. Herobrine let one run up to him, then as the Pigman swung its sword at him, Herobrine judo-flipped the Pigman by the hip (Stephanie style XD) and threw it into the chasm of lava below. It wouldn't die, but it looked like it would take a while to get back on land. Another approached him and as it swung at Herobrine, Herobrine grabbed the undead pig warrior by the wrist (do Pigmen have wrists?) and twisted it at a painful angle, but seeing how it was already dead, I don't think it felt it. Then Herobrine threw the pig at another approaching Zombie Pigman. The two Pigmen made contact and fell into the chasm. Another ran right behind him and raised its sword. Herobrine turned around and blocked it with his arm. Apparently he had arms of iron. Just great. Herobrine then punched the poor Zombie Pigman and it went flying into the lava ocean below as well. Herobrine then looked at me and sneered. Then, more Pigmen ran at the demon. And I began to run away as fast as I could.

I kept running through the endless mazes of the Nether Fortress. At some point, the baby Zombie Pigman must have passed out. Lucky for Nether mobs, I literally could not sleep. If I tried, an explosion would set off the moment I placed a bed down. I ran, ran, and ran until my feet felt like they were splitting apart. Then, I saw an exit. Excitedly, I ran a little longer towards the exit.

When I reached the exit, I looked ahead and saw a torch. I knew I had found the right exit. Then I remembered I needed a blaze powder to complete a fire charge. I looked in my bag. I found 3 Blaze rods. 'Great, that will give me one fire charge and still have 5 blaze powder left over'. I thought excitedly. I began to run through the path of torches I made.

After about an hour, I looked up to see a familiar black portal frame. I set down the baby Zombie Pigman, which was still snoozing, put my bag down, got out all the items needed for the fire charge, broke the blaze rod in half, which then crumbled to powder, and crushed them together. A few seconds later, I opened my hands and there was a fire charge in them. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice shouting commands.

"DON'T YOU DARE LET THAT HUMAN GET OUT ALIVE OR I WILL FLAY YOU, ALIVE OR DEAD!" The Zombie Piglett woke up, looked behind me and began to squeal repeatedly. I turned around and gasped. Herobrine was flying above countless Blazes, Magma Cubes, Wither Skeletons and Ghasts all chasing me.

"HURRY!" I yelled to the zombified Piglett. It squealed and followed me as I ran to the portal. I picked up the Piglett as we neared the mountain, knowing it would have difficulty climbing up the steep blocks.

When we made it to the top, I took out the fire charge and threw it at the portal. The portal activated as I held the Piglett and ran through the portal.

"I WILL GET YOU STEVE!" Were the last words I heard from Herobrine as I left the Nether, returning to my world.

 **There we go. Steve now has a new partner. Yes, that is the OG Joey. So yeah, the original idea for Steve's companion that was retconned was very different from his current companion, the only similarity being that they're both pigs(different types though). I would even have ideas for Steve to find a way to 'cure' his pigman buddy, creating a living pigman, but never followed through on the idea.**


	33. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Into the World of the Future

As I stepped in the portal, my vision swirled. I felt my chest lighten and I clutched my little Pigman companion and went out of the Nether and back to Minecraftia.

When the purple swirling disappeared, I flew out of the portal and landed on the ground... the soft, wet ground. I knew I had gotten home. Immediately, I looked back and saw the Nether mobs trying to get through the portal. I ran up to the portal and grabbed my sword. Seeing how I didn't have any other thing to seal the portal with, I swung my sword at the portal with all my strength. The portal deactivated then collapsed from the sheer pressure of my attack. It didn't look useable anymore so I looked around. I noticed my sword had broken in half. I wasn't going to be using that anymore.

The area I was in was somewhat familiar. I had deja vu looking around. I was in a desert biome. Suddenly, I realized something. "No, it can't be!"

I ran in one direction until I stumbled upon a familiar cobblestone house. "It is!" It was my house. Which meant the village was...

"Oh Notch! How long was I gone?" I blurted out. Time was out of control in the Nether. For all I knew, it could have an hour since I went to the Nether, or a day or even a entire week. My eyes widened at the thought of being gone for a week.

I ran to my house, which grew mossy in the time I was gone. I ran through the door and looked through my double chest for two more swords. I always brought a second sword in case my first sword broke. But, both my swords had already broke. I didn't have any swords, but I did have lots of different ores which I took. I also found some sticks, which I put with some iron ingots to make four iron swords, half of which I stored in the double chest. I turned around and saw the baby Zombie Pigman standing at the door, looking at well, everything. I realized the little Zombie Pigman wasn't from this world so everything that I see everyday was something new to the little undead Pigman. I smiled, then looked back through the chest. I had to have something for the Piglett. I found about six carrots and put them in my bag.

After a few seconds, I found it. I found the creeper mask that I used to wear as a child before that cursed night came and took everything I loved away. Well, everything except for Emily I realized. Then I remembered the village. 'I have to go there now.' I thought to myself. I took out the creeper mask, the last thing I had that was from my childhood except for my emerald, given to me by Emily. I walked up to the zombified Piglett and handed it to it. The Piglett, still wearing the Wither Skeleton head, took it off, handed it to me. It looked at the creeper mask for a few moments then put it on. The thing had probably never seen a creeper before.

"Well, time for us to head off again." I told the baby Pigman warrior.

I looked at the sun. It was just after morning. I grabbed a carrot and handed it to the Zombie Piglett. The Piglett grabbed it, then sniffed it and lifted its mask and munched on the carrot.

Then, I lifted the baby Zombie Pigman and we set off. I hurried through the forest in hopefully the right direction.

After a hour or so, I reached a clearing. I ran to it and when I reached the clearing, I found a familiar plains biome. I looked to the right and saw a mountain and recognized it as the mountain I climbed when it was turning night. That was the night I first found the village. That meant I was close to the village. I continued to run.

After a few minutes of running, I saw a building in the distance. I ran even faster to it when suddenly I stopped. How am I going explain to what happened to everyone? I was yanked into the Nether right before their eyes. I couldn't just show up out of nowhere... could I? I wondered how everyone was doing. All of a sudden, someone walked out of the house. I ran behind a nearby tree. I peeked out from behind the tree and looked at the mysterious person. They didn't seem to notice me. They didn't look like anyone I recognized, then again, I was pretty far away. They walked off towards the village. I decided to wait until I thought of a way to reveal myself without causing a commotion. I looked at the sun. It was leaning toward the horizon. I sighed and decided to set up camp not too far from the village, but not too close, either.

Later, the sun had almost completely set and I found a little clearing surrounded by the roofed forest, but not actually in it. I looked through my bag for something brighter than a torch as that wouldn't keep the mobs away. I found a block of netherrack in my bag. I guess I picked it up while in the Nether. It could be useful as netherrack once lit never burns out. Then, I realized I didn't have anything to light it with. I looked around and saw a gravel pile in a nearby spring. I ran over to it as the sun was almost gone.

When I reached the gravel spring, I dug it up until, after digging up about six blocks, I saw a piece of flint fall into the small spring. I picked it up, hoping it could still start a fire, and ran back to my campsite.

When I returned to the campsite, I brought out an iron ingot and started striking the two together on top of the netherrack. After about seven strikes, I got a good spark. It flew off the flint and onto the netherrack. Seconds later, I saw embers in the netherrack turning into flames, then erupting into a full-blown fire. The temperature heated up so rapidly, I jumped back in surprise. I noticed the baby Zombie Pigman staring at the fire. I wondered if it missed its home. It looked weird with a creeper mask on. I heard a growl, then realized it was my stomach. The baby Zombie Pigman looked at my stomach, startled. I didn't notice just how hungry I was!

I looked through my bag of mystical wonders and looked for something to eat. I found some carrots and handed one to the little Zombie Pigman then took a bite of another. As we sat there eating, I wondered, 'Where are all the mobs?' It was strange, no mobs had attacked us. I could still see a few skeletons and creepers over in the distance, but they didn't attack us. They didn't even come over. They didn't seem notice the blazing fire nearby. Or maybe they didn't care. I finished the carrot off but I was still hungry. So I got out a loaf of bread and began eating it.

When I finished that, I was still a little hungry but I didn't want to waste anymore food, in case it took me a while to come up with an idea on what to do. I felt tired and utterly exhausted. I had been running all day... or week. Again, time was difficult in the Nether.

I decided to get some rest. If I didn't, my body was going to quit on me. Minecraftians were normally born tough and were built to fight for our lives at all times, but after everything I've been through, it would make sense that I would be dead-tired.

I layed my head back onto a wool block I made with 4 strings, and I looked up at the skies. The little Pigman crawled up to my woolen pillow and layed its head on it as well. I stared up at the stars, the little block stars. I wondered if my ancestors got to sleep outside with mobs when Herobrine united the two. Lucky for them, they didn't have to live every night fearing it was their last. I looked for the blockstellations.

After a few moments of looking, I saw what appeared to be the blockstellation of Notch.

It looked amazing. The blockstellation showed Notch holding an Aethian sheep. I wondered what became of Baa-aab. I felt bad for not releasing or even looking for him after that evil night. I looked for another cosmic pattern. I saw one that looked like it was the mythical Diamond Sword. It was beautiful! It's the most powerful blade in all of Minecraftia! It was said that the hero who defeated Herobrine wielded the majestic Diamond Sword. I then looked for the blockstellation of the hero. When I found it, I looked at it. It showed the hero in battle against Herobrine. The hero was swinging back the meteor Herobrine launched at him. I wished I had the Diamond Sword. It was the blade that once forced evil mobs to yield. Then again, I'd probably drop it in lava or break it somehow. I sighed, then closed my eyes. The cackle and warmth from the fire relaxed me. Then, for the first time in forever, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was bright. The sun had rose. The little Zombie Pigman was looking at me. I got up then looked at the fire. It was still burning. Before anyone could see the smoke, I smothered the inferno. I decided on a plan. I was going to look for Stephanie. She was the only one who I thought wouldn't freak out. The only two places she would probably be is either in the infirmary or her house, depending on how long I was gone.

An hour later, I set off. I picked up everything and went to the village.

As we neared the village, I whispered to the little Zombie Pigman, "Now, you must be very quiet. I'll tell you when you can make noise." The undead Piglett just snorted quieter than usual. I guess it was letting me know it got the message... hopefully. Then, our little stealth mission began.

I snuck around the village, looking around corners to watch out for villagers. After about 5 minutes of sneaking, I saw no villagers, oddly. I saw the infirmary about 2 houses down. I snuck over to the building VERY carefully.

When I made it to the infirmary, I opened the door quietly and peered inside. I didn't know which shocked me more, the fact that Stephanie wasn't there either or the strange sign on the wall. I started worrying. 'Where is everyone?' I walked up to the sign and read it. It read:

Days since the Mobocalypse

87

'Where is everybody? And what is the Mobocalypse?' I wondered as I looked around the infirmary.

After looking around, I found something even stranger. I found a trapdoor on the other side of the place, on the right hand corner. It wasn't there last time I looked there. I decided to check it out. Then, I went to the trapdoor. When I got there, I lifted the trapdoor, looked into the hole, saw some ladders and went into the darkness.

After a few minutes of climbing down the ladders, I wondered what could be down here. I heard my little undead companion groan. It seemed scared. It probably wasn't used to darkness, being from a world of fire. This was a hole that went deep underground.

Finally, I felt the ground and I knew I had reached the bottom. Fortunately, my eyes had adjusted. I seemed to have reached a wide circular room two blocks tall. I noticed a door straight ahead. I ran toward the door and noticed light on the other side of the door.

When I got to the door, I heard what sounded like talking on the other side. I thought I saw figures through the door. I heard them talking. They didn't seem to notice me yet. I listened.

"-this have to happen? I don't understand." A female voice whimpered.

The person sounded like they just stopped crying. It was Emily's voice.

"I don't understand either. What I do understand is that that demon is obviously responsible for all this." went another female voice. It sounded like... Stephanie's voice.

"But why did the demon have to banish Steve to the Nether? Steve never did anything to him. And what about us? We never deserved any of this-" The first voice went on.

"Emily, everything's going to be alright, just calm down." A gruff voice said. I thought 'Jacob?' All my friends sounded like they were in the next room.

"Easy for you to say. He was my brother. Even if everything goes well for you, Steve will still be gone."

Finally, I chose to show myself to them. I opened the door and they turned to face me. I saw Emily's mouth drop, as well as everyone else's.

"Hi..." I greeted nervously.

"STEVE!" Emily, Stephanie and Jacob ran to me. Emily and Stephanie hugged me.

After what seemed like several minutes, Jacob spoke.

"What happened? Where have you been? You were gone so long!"

"So long? What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Steve, you've been missing for almost three months." Jacob explained.

 **Oh snap, what a twist! I wonder what Steve's reaction to this news will be... Anyways, this was a shorter chapter, so I'm gonna be posting another chapter right after this. Now, let's address the elephant in the room. Blockstellations... Mobocalypse... Yikes, I would later come to cringe badly at those names I came up with.**


	34. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 10

Chapter 11

The Mobocalypse

My heart stopped for a second.

"What?" I heard myself say. Then, I got over my shock, "What do you mean I've been missing for three months?" I cried. How could three months have passed in just a few hours in the Nether.

"I mean what I said. Almost three months have passed since we last saw you. We thought you were dead." Jacob looked at me with sad eyes.

"But I was alive, I was just in the Nether for six hours, tops! Now, if a few days or even a week had passed, I would understand. But three WHOLE months." I began freaking out. Three months of my life were gone. Or maybe I would live three months longer. Anyway, it still bothered me.

Stephanie's POV

"Well, it's the truth. I just can't believe you're-" Jacob stopped himself, "What is a baby Zombie Pigman doing in your bag!" Jacob gasped. Emily and I stopped hugging Steve and we gazed in shock at the little baby Zombie Pigman in his bag. It was for some reason wearing a creeper mask as it looked around at us.

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Jacob, this is a piglett I have no name for yet. Piglett, this is Jacob..." Steve waved his hand between the two, indicating that he was introducing the two, "Emily, this is No-name. No-name, this is Emily..." I sensed a bit of humor in that name. Steve waved between the two again, then turned to me, "Stephanie, meet Nameless. Nameless, meet Stephanie." Steve once again waved at both of us, "This Zombie Piglett has saved my life on more than one occasion." Steve pointed out. I wondered what THAT meant. I thought about the time Steve got pulled into the Nether portal. I was actually resting in the infirmary when it happened so all I know was from what Emily and Jacob told me. Apparently, the Enders' Blade Gang returned before it happened. I seriously hated those heartless crooks. They took from anyone smaller than them and they usually came back sooner or later. After Steve got in a fight with the leader, he somehow defeated the gang leader. Then, Zombie Pigmen attacked the village and Steve, Emily and Jacob fought them off. Apparently, a Pigman King involved. I heard from Emily that Steve actually slew the Zombie Pigman King. That's impressive, I'll admit.

"Why are you guys underground?" Steve asked.

"Because of the mobs aboveground. Ever since you were taken to the Nether, the mobs have grown considerably more powerful. Zombies call more zombies, skeletons shoot much faster and more accurately, spider come out with potion effects, and creepers cause more damage to the landscape upon explosion. Mobs are just too dangerous now. We call it the 'Mobocalypse'." Jacob explained.

"What? The Mobocalypse? But I was just outside, I slept through the night in the open! Nothing bothered me!" Steve claimed.

"Some nights, the mobs don't reveal themselves. Most nights, they do." Jacob explained.

I looked at Steve, he looked like he went to the depths of hell and back, which I guess he did. He looked okay for someone who was trapped for nearly three months in the Nether. He actually looked pretty good, but not like handsomely good or any junk like that. He just didn't look as bad as I'd expect. I'll admit, I'm quite surprised he befriended a mob. And a Netherborn one at that. It's actually more impressive than me making friends with Mr. Astley. I was a little jealous.

"Why did the demon keep me in the Nether for so long?" Steve asked, clearly confused.

"I don't know, but in the time you were gone, the village aboveground was overrun with the mobs and we were forced to move underground. It would seem as though the demon cursed this land again what with all the choas he's unleashed."

"What! And why aren't you saying his name-" Steve was cut off.

"We can't! Not at these rough times." Jacob interrupted.

"Rough times? Guys, this is a time to fight! We can't just give up our village to a few zombies and an occasional creeper! We have to stand our ground and defend our territory!" Steve proclaimed. I shook my head, "Steve, I wish we could but the mobs are more dangerous than ever. There are all kinds of strange mobs. There's the Walker King and his subjects from the Walker Kingdom, and giant Nagas and Baskilisks and Emporer Scorpians. There are even mutant mobs from the lands of Mutania." I explained. The mutant mobs were really dangerous. Currently, there were the mutant snow golem, mutant zombie, mutant creeper, mutant skeleton and mutant enderman, but that was from what we knew. They were more than ten times deadlier than their non-mutant selves. The day I took one on, I nearly died. It was obvious the demon brought them here.

"Wait, mutant mobs? What are those?" Steve asked.

"Mutant mobs are mobs who've been mutated using Chemical-X. They get much more powerful than any other normal mob. I almost got killed when I stood up to a Mutant Creeper." I shuddered, remembering the awful and painful memory.

"I'm going to look for one..." Steve promised, "And I'm going to kill it. When I do, will you finally stop sitting around like bats and help?" My eyes widened at the thought of Steve dying to one of those mobs.

"Steve! You can't-" Emily cried.

"I'm going to! And you can't stop me!" Steve persisted.

"Please Steve, please don't do it." I whined. He just revealed he was alive all this time. If Steve died to those Nether-ish creatures, that would devastate us.

He began to head off, back to the dark ladders.

"I'm not going to hide from a few powered-up mobs... I'm going to fight back..." And then, he climbed up the ladders.

Steve's POV

As I headed up the ladders, I thought about what they said. It really bothered me how they just gave up, just like that. I was determined to find one of the so-called mutant mobs and kill it, just to show them I would not give up. 'That's just what Herobrine wants, for us to give up hope.' I thought to myself. Well, I wasn't going to make that easy. I wasn't going to give up just yet.

After a few minutes of climbing up the dark ladder, I finally reached the top. I got out of the trapdoor and closed it. Then, with my sword in hand and my little dangerous Zombie Pigman buddy by my side, I left the infirmary.

Fortunately, it was already nighttime outside so I didn't have to wait. I looked around for a mutant mob. I didn't know what a mutant mob looked like, so I looked for a strong looking mob.

After a few minutes of searching through the village, I saw what looked like a huge zombie. It was about 3 to 4 blocks tall. It also looked tough and muscular. I shuddered at the sight of the hulking zombie. I guessed it must have been a mutant zombie. Then, I shook off my fear. I wasn't going to give up. I looked my little Pigman friend.

"Don't help me. Otherwise, you could die." I warned the little undead Pigman warrior. The Piglett squealed. I set it down and walked towards the hulked-up being.

I approached the giant zombie. When I got within 16 blocks, it noticed me and ran towards me. I'll admit, I was terrified. ButI overcame my intimidation and ran as well.

When I got about 7 blocks from the mutant zombie, it roared. I covered my ears, it was so loud. I heard it echo throughtout the village. Moments later, I noticed the ground in several spots starting to spew dirt like an volcanic eruption. The zombie leaned down as if exhausted. I took that as a perfect opportunity to attack and ran at it. When I got to it, I slashed at it. I kept slashing at it until suddenly, it straightened itself up. It slammed its arms to the ground while letting out angry roars. A tremor flew out from the area the mutant zombie slammed. I jumped to the side. The mutant zombie kept creating tremors. I kept jumping away from them. Then suddenly, I felt myself getting lighter. I looked at the mutant zombie, but it was gone. In fact, everything was gone! I only saw the sky and moon. I looked down. I was thrown about somewhere between 10 to 20 blocks into the air and the mutant zombie jumped up towards me with its arms raised above its head. It was going to slam dunk me! Quickly, I looked for something in my bag that could help me get out of the predicament I was in. I found an enderpearl, but I was too late. The mutant zombie flew at me and I close my eyes.

A few seconds later, I opened them again. I was still in air. I turned around and saw the mutant zombie landing about 20 blocks away. I don't know how, but it had missed. Then, I felt a horrible pain. I cried out from the pain. I looked around and saw that I had landed on the ground as well. I had fallen from somewhere between 10 to 20 blocks straight on my feet.

"Ooowww..." I groaned. I felt a pain in my ankle that felt like a few hot blaze rods moving around my ankle and I knew I broke one.

Suddenly, I noticed a green arm out of the corner of my eye. I quickly got up and turned around, ignoring the blazing pain in my legs. There were zombies, lots of zombies all around me. I then remembered the mutant roaring and the ground spewing dirt out of it as if there was something clawing its way out. 'What if the mutant did more than just howl, what if that roar somehow summoned more zombies?' Then that was a big problem.

I ran back to the mutant, knowing I couldn't kill all the other zombies. The big zombie mutant focused on me and ran at me again. Then, I started hearing the pained groans of the zombies behind me. I looked back. The zombies were chasing something small. I looked carefully and noticed it was my little sidekick, the baby Zombie Pigman. The zombies swung their arms at the little swine warrior. It kept dodging the attacks and slashing its sword at them. Before long, all the regular zombies had noticed the baby Zombie Pigman was the bigger threat, despite its small size.

I turned to face the mutant zombie, which was really close to me. It slammed its arms at the ground and another tremor erupted. I jumped over it and slashed at its midsection. Then, the zombie tried to punched at me. I ducked, but the pain from previously slamming into the ground flared. I fell, then tried to crawl away. Suddenly, the zombie mutant grabbed me by the ankle and I felt intense pain in that area. Then, it lifted me into the air and the mutant started slamming me into the ground, over and over. The continous movement made my ankle feel like it was on fire. After slamming me into the ground several times, the mutant threw me over dozens of blocks into a patch of grass. I landed on the grass blocks and kept sliding until I slid against a tree. I felt a liquid trickling around my leg and knew it was liquid redstone, a Minecraftian's blood. I looked through my bag for that enderpearl.

After a few seconds, I felt what felt like one and grabbed it. I took it out. It was an enderpearl. I aimed it towards the mutant zombie and threw it. I wasn't going to give up that easily, I thought as I watched the enderpearl slowly falling towards the mutant.

A few moments later, I was instantly warped a few blocks away from the zombie mutant with purple particles flying off me. I swung my sword at its head, hoping to cut it off. The moment the blade made contact, it sunk into the flesh. I realized it was a mutant, it wouldn't be THAT easy to kill.

All of a sudden, the mutant zombie threw me into the air. I grabbed through my bag and grabbed another enderpearl. I then threw it straight to the ground. I looked at the mutant jumping at me.

The moment it got close enough to slam me down, I suddenly teleported and was back on the ground. I looked up and saw the mutant zombie flying past where I originally was. It landed several blocks away but still saw me and once again ran towards me. I limped to it, making sure I stayed off my bad ankle. When it got to me, it threw me in air once again. I looked in my bag for another enderpearl, but I had no more. I panicked but was forced to watched as the mutant came rising towards me.

When it reached me, it slamming down at me, making me fall twice as fast as gravity would let me. I went hurdling towards the ground. I slammed into the ground at maximum speed, landing on my back. I fell through at least two block deep in dirt. Everything hurt, my back, my head, my ankle.

Somehow, I still got back up. 'I'm not going to die by zombies again!' I ordered myself. I got back up, pressing against the soil for extra support and crawled out of the little crater I created.

When I got out of the hole, I tried to stand up and I heard something from my body snap. I collapsed, nausous, started hearing what sounded like voices. I didn't know if they were in my head or not.

"Stephanie! Go save Steve! Emily! Help the baby Zombie Pigman! I'll handle the mutant zombie!"

And then, I fainted.

When I woke up, I was in some kind of bunker. I tried moving my arm. I felt no indication that my arm had moved. I tried turning my head. I realized I couldn't move my head either! I started to worry. What had happened to my body? I tried to move something, anything! Nothing would move.

"Steve! Thank Notch you're alive!" I heard a voice, but I couldn't turn to see who it was.

"Oh... sorry, forgot that you can't move due to the potion." A figure moved into my sight. It looked like... Emily. She continued talking.

"I'm really glad you're alright. Everyone's been worried about you." I tried to ask what happened, but my mouth wouldn't work either.

"I know you might have some questions and I'll summarize what happened. Basically what happened was you fought a mutant zombie, I'm sure you remember that..." She paused, probably waiting for me to remember those events. I remembered the battle. Thinking back on it, it didn't seem like a good idea to fight a mutant with no actual plan. Emily continued, "You were getting killed by the mutant when we came, so Jacob distracted the mutant while we rescued you and your little friend. After that, you went into a coma. We worried that you might never wake up but we couldn't abandon you after everything you did for us. So we left you here and waited until you woke up. We waited a whole month..." She waited to let that register. A whole month? That meant... I couldn't believe my ears! Another month had passed!

I tried to move, I desperately didn't want be trapped in my own immobile body. I tried as hard as I could to make even the smallest of movement.

Finally, after a few minutes, I started to move, first my arms then legs. Emily had been talking but I didn't listen. I couldn't stand not being able to move. It hurt badly moving but I didn't care. I finally sat up.

"Steve, no! You really need to rest!" Emily warned. I tried to move my mouth. It became easier moving my body now.

"No! I won't be trapped in my own body!" I finally struggled to say. I got up and began to walk to the door near the bed. Emily sighed and continued to talk.

"Fine, I won't stop you. You're free to do whatever you want." I walked to the door. Before I opened the door, I asked one last question.

"Where are the others?"

"They're on the surface, farming crops." Emily explained. I stopped, there were two things I really wanted to know before I left. And Emily was the only one likely to give me the answers.

"What happened when the Mobocalypse first began?" I asked her. She hesitated, then answered.

"It was awful. The night you were yanked to the Nether, mobs attacked the village. They were much more powerful than usual. The village stood no chance at all. Everyone fleed, most actually fleed the village in panic. It happened so long ago yet I remember it so well. It was one of the most frightening nights of my life." Emily exclaimed.

"Where did everyone go?"

"I told you, they left the village. We don't know what became of them."

"One last thing, who was David?" I asked her. She instantly looked sad.

"He was, uh... he was a very close friend..."

"Did you... like him?" She hesitated.

"To be honest, I thought we might have been together in the near future, which is now the past, then the incident happened and... he... he..." She looked away and continued, "he died protecting the village. And then, after that I was never the same. I admit, he did have some nice traits. He was brave, smart, kind and skilled. He would fight almost any mob to protect his friends." I was shocked. David sounded a lot like me. I would fight any mob, no matter how big and vicious it was just to save a friend. I immediately admired the guy. It must of been terrible for Emily to lose such a close friend. She continued, "I still remember it happening. I know what sword he fought with, where he fought at, and the mob that... killed him. It was a enderman. I just wished I could've saved him. I was in the battle, too. There isn't a day that goes by without me regretting not helping him." She sounded so miserable, I knew I had to cheer her up, being her big brother. Actually, I didn't even know which of us was older. I didn't know if being in the Nether speeds up your life or what. I realized with a shudder that Emily might be my big sister.

"I'm sure you tried all that you could to stay and fight for him."

"Yes but I didn't help him, I couldn't. It really hurt... to watch him dying in my arms. It traumatized me. I..." She swallowed with difficulty, "I liked him..." She started crying, "And to watch him dying in my arms when I cared so much for him just..." I felt really bad for her. I could only imagine how painful the moment was.

"I'm so sorry. If there's anyway I can do to help you, just tell me." I offered.

"Just go away... I need some time to myself." She replied.

I looked at her for a few more seconds, then headed off. I went through the door and to the ladders. But there weren't ladders. A stairway replaced the ladders. I went up the stairs.

After a few minutes of climbing the stairs, I reached the top. The top somehow looked different from what I remembered. Then, I realized what it was. The infirmary was gone. The stairs just led to the surface. In fact, the whole entire town was gone!

I looked around the vicinity. It looked completely familiar. I realized it was because the stairs lead up to a desert biome. My desert biome...

I looked around the desert and checked to see if I was near my home. I spotted Jacob about 50 blocks away farming. I looked around the desert for Stephaie. It was strange that she was not with Jacob.

After a few seconds of searching, I gave up. Then, I headed towards Jacob. Jacob looked at me, shocked.

"Steve... you're alive! Or are you a ghost?" Jacob asked.

"I'm no ghost, at least not that I know of." I replied.

"Well, thank Notch you're alive." Jacob cheered.

"Yeah. But what happened while I was zonked out?" I asked. Jacob lowered his gaze.

"It's best to leave the past the past." Jacob not-answered.

"But I want to know. I've been in a coma for a month. Give me an update at least."

"I'm sorry Steve. I just don't want to relive what happened over the past month. Ask anyone else." He explained. I sighed.

"Where's Stephanie?"

"She went south. Said she found some kind of house next to a forest biome."

I now knew that Steph had found my home so I thanked him and ran off towards the direction he pointed out.

 **Awww, so David died protecting his friends... that's very sweet, and also, I'm genuinely baffled at how spot on his depiction in this story I wrote five years ago was to how he would be in his series. But yeah, what you guys didn't know was that this afterthoughts happened a month after the chapter ended! Meaning that five months have passed in fact!(jk) Yeah, this is one reason why I always try hard not to reference time. I typically try to avoid using seconds and minutes, instead relying on perspectives by using 'a moment has passed' kind of time passing, the reason being is that Minecraft time and real time are two different things. I was tempted to use ticks as a system, but decided that'd be very hard to put into my story as not a lot of people know how fast a tick is(myself included). Also, in this chapter we realized that the blood of Minecraftians is in fact liquid redstone! Yeah, I felt really proud of that theory, because it makes a lot of sense to me, redstone being what causes machine to activate and carry a current. But I retconned the whole thing shortly after Story Mode came out because I liked the way they did things, being how if someone is hit they flash red and are knocked back. Before, I just viewed that as an unrealistic thing in Minecraft, but after Story Mode I decided to remove Minecraftian blood from my story's canon and replace it with red flashing. But hey, I'm sure you can still theorize about how when a person takes damage and flashes red, that's the redstone in their body reacting to the hit, or something like that.**


	35. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 11

**Hey, sorry that it took so long for me to post a new chapter guys. I've been playing Pokemon Black and I just haven't been able to set it down. Anyways, I didn't notice until just now that I have two Chapter 11s. That first one was a typo from my original writing, just to clear up any confusion. Also, some of you suggested that since I'm still adding on to the story that I might as well remove the hiatus status. While I appreciate the concern, my story** ** _is_** **in fact on hiatus. The story that I was advertising likely will remain on hiatus for a very long time. The story that I keep posting chapters for that you are currently reading are more of a** ** _behind-the-scenes_** **kind of thing. Or maybe it's a documentary of some sort. I dunno, but it isn't the story people expected to read, so that's why I'm keeping hiatus in the description. The OG story is more of a reward or compensation to the people that really enjoyed the advertised story(depending on how you see it).**

Chapter 11

The Others

After a few minutes of running, I saw a familiar house in the distance. I ran faster.

When I arrived, I ran to the door. It was ajar. I looked inside my house. The groundlevel room looked like it was looted but no one was there, so I went to the underground digging room.

As I made my way down, I began to hear the sounds of my chests being opened downstairs. I hurried up. I didn't want Stephanie to look through my chest of childhood memories.

I went downstairs and saw Stephanie. I knew I was too late as she looked through it. Then she noticed me.

"Steve? You're okay! Thank Notch!"She exclaimed, obviously relieved. She continued, "I found this strange house not too far from our bunker!"

"I know... it's my house." I revealed. Stephanie's eyes widened and she instantly looked guilty.

"Oh Steve! I'm sorry... I didn't know... I didn't know you had a house."

"Well where did you think I lived?" I asked her.

"I didn't know, I guess I thought you were some kind of traveler. I'm really sorry. I just saw a house and decided to loot it if no one was home." Stephanie stated.

"It's alright. No hard feelings. I'm not mad or anything. Just please leave what you found from that chest in there." I requested.

"Alright." She opened the chest again and put a few things back. Then she turned back to me, "Just one question." She said, "What's in there?" I hesitated.

"Memories... everything I could bring with me after that cursed night came and took almost everything I cared about..." I held back a tear.

"Ohhhh..." Steph muttered.

"Anything in this house is mine as well as everyone else's." I proclaimed. Might as well share with people who need it more than me, especially with my friends. Then, I headed out without another word.

I left the house and looked up at the sun. It had began to set. I turned around to go and warn Steph but she had followed me.

"I'm coming with you, I'm done with uh... looting your house I guess." She informed.

"Okay." We headed off towards the bunker.

Suddenly, I felt my bag shake around. I put down my bag and looked through it. I found my little Pigman friend tossing around. I didn't know he was in my bag this whole time. He appeared asleep. He must have been tossing around in his sleep. I let him sleep, walking as carefully as I could.

After walking for a few minutes, I turned around and saw Steph looking at something. She didn't notice me, so I took a closer look. I realized it was a picture.

"Stephanie, what is that?" I asked. She looked up, noticed me and hid it behind her back.

"Nothing- It's nothing." She blurted out. I knew something was up.

"Tell me Stephanie... What is it?" I asked, wanting an answer. She sighed and brought it out.

"A picture I found." I stopped and took it. I looked at it. It was my picture, from my private chest. It was a picture of me and my sister, standing in front of our parents. I finally couldn't hold it back. I began to cry. I missed my parents so much. Stephanie walked up to me and layed a hand on my shoulder.

"Are those... your parents?" She asked softly.

"...Yes." I tried to stop crying. I didn't want to seem like a weakling in front anyone. But I couldn't stop.

After a few minutes of crying, I continued, "I'm sorry you have to see me like this."

"Don't be, crying is what makes us human." She tried to cheer me up.

Before long, it turned night. Then, it started getting cold. I drew my sword when I began seeing mobs roaming the desert. Steph drew her sword too. We treaded on extra carefully from then on.

A couple of minutes of walking later, I started seeing lights ahead. We hurried towards the light. Suddenly, I heard Stephanie cry out in panic, "STEVE! Watch out!" I instinctively ducked. And not a moment too soon. I heard something whizz above my head and land in the sand.

WHOOOOSH!

I looked at the projectile. It looked like... an arrow? I looked around for skeletons nearby. Stephanie looked around as well. I couldn't see any of the skeletal archers anywhere.

Suddenly, I noticed something WAY in the distance jump into the air. I looked at it.

Seconds later, I heard and saw multiple projectiles fly past us, barely missing. I looked at the things, which had landed in the sand around us. Just as I suspected, they were arrows. Which meant what was shooting at us was an archer of some kind.

"We're under attack!" I whispered loudly to Stephanie.

"Oh no... it can't be! Not now! Not now!" She sounded panicky.

"What?" I asked.

"I think... I think that's a Mutant Skeleton shooting at us!" She replied as another arrow flew past us, barely missing by a couple of inches, "We have to hide!" She warned.

We ran behind of couple cacti for protection.

"A Mutant Skeleton? There's a Mutant Skeleton too?!" I asked.

"Yeah. There's a Mutant Zombie, Mutant Skeleton, Mutant Creeper, and Mutant Enderman. I hear there's also a Mutant Snow Golem but it's not hostile thankfully." Steph explained, "Mutant Skeletons are one of the most dangerous. They are well known for their amazing archery skills and near infinite eyesight."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means we're screwed if we do nothing!"

"How do we kill it?"

"They have melee attacks but attacking up close is our best bet." We began working on a plan.

A few minutes later, I heard the rattling of massive bones. The mutant sounded like it was I'd say... about 40 blocks away. I looked at Stephanie. She began counting down with her fingers. '3...2...1...Now!'

We charged the mutant and immediately, it held it's huge crossbow to its skull.

"Be careful, the arrows can have a chemical on it that can poison, slow, starve or blind you!" Stephanie warned.

Then, it shot an arrow out of the crossbow and it flew towards me. I raised my sword and deflected it.

When we were around 25 blocks away, it jumped into the air and shot somewhere between 6 to 8 arrows at both us in a ring formation. I jumped through the ring of arrows and successfully dodged them. I looked over and saw that Stephanie had dodged them as well. When I made it to the Mutant Skeleton, it stopped sniping and wacked me with its crossbow. I was surprised by the attack and was knocked back into a cactus. Immediately, I had to shut mouth to keep from howling in pain as the spikes drove into my back.

As I got out of the cactus, I saw Stephanie still charging at the mutant. Then she slashed at the skeletal mutant. As she slashed at it, it repeatedly swung its bow at her but kept missing due to her agility.

I got back up when the Mutant Skeleton's rib cage suddenly enlarged and it grabbed Stephanie and threw her into the air as they slammed together. She yelped in pain and I ran over back into the conflict.

I jump-striked the mutant, dealing a critical hit on it while its attention was on Stephanie. It turned to me again and swung its bow at me. I ducked and swung my sword at its ribs. It bounced off. I realized it was made of mutated bones. It probably became a lot tougher. It staggered backwards. I realized despite my deflected swing, one of its ribs had actually broken off. Then I thought, 'What would happen if its ribcage fell apart completely?' It was worth trying out.

I started slashing at its ribcage until I broke another. It kept trying to wack me away, but I kept dodging.

After I broke off all the ribs, I stabbed it in the exposed midsection. It stumbled around, then fell to the ground. I looked for Stephanie.

Finally I spotted her several blocks away. I ran to her.

When I got to her, I knelt beside her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She looked beat up.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." She assured me. Then she slowly got up and dusted herself off. I heard a noise coming from the Mutant Skeleton and turned around.

Suddenly, the skeletal mutant moved. I grabbed for my sword but noticed it on the ground behind it. Then, it raised its head (skull?) up and glared at us. I stared it down with an aggressive stance and look on my face. It raised its crossbow, aimed at me and fired one last shot. I didn't think it would do that and everything turned to slow-motion. I saw everything, the bats flying around the night sky, the mobs roaming around in distance and of course the arrow flying at me. All of a sudden, something tackled me and the arrow missed me.

I got up and looked at the thing that pushed me out of the way. But it wasn't a thing... it was a person. Stephanie was on the ground with an arrow sticking through her chest.

She was laying on the ground with a look of intense pain on her face. I gasped. She shivered, either because of the cold desert or the wound or both. I turned enraged and looked at mutant archer.

I ran over to the bony archer mutant, I saw Stephanie's sword on the ground and grabbed it. When I got to the Mutant Skeleton, it looked at my sword and let out the sound of bones clattering. It seemed to know it was going to die and appeared to be laughing at me. I raised Stephanie's sword above my head and brought it down onto the Mutant Skeleton's skull.

The moment the blade made contact with its skull, it erupted into several bones that flew apart.

Immediately, I remembered Stephanie, grabbed my own sword and ran back to her.

"Stephanie! You're going to be okay! I won't let you die! I'm so sorry!" I cried as I got back to her. She turned to face me.

"Steve... it's fine..." She struggled to say. She gasped for breath, then continued, "It wasn't your fault..." I began to cry. Stephanie was a real good friend to me. I looked at where the arrow pierced her and gasped in shock. The arrow was straight in her heart! All around the wound was liquid redstone. But I still wasn't giving up on her.

"No... you're not going to die! Not today... I promise I will get you to safety!" I swore to her.

"Steve, don't try... after all... I had a good run..." She went on, "Steve, before I die... I want to tell you... I... I..." Then she lost consiousness.

"No... NO! I WON'T LET YOU DIE!" I yelled as I lifted her and brought her over my shoulder, careful not to move the arrow that was lodged in her. And then I ran for the light.

She was heavy but I kept running for several minutes. Mobs kept trying to stop me. I avoided fighting them as I knew time was very much precious. Skeletons shot at me, zombies limped towards me, spiders jumped after me. I even saw a big creeper that might have been a mutant jump high into the air, probably trying to crush me.

A few seconds later, I heard it fall to the ground, landing on top of several mobs and instantly killing them. I heard an explosion and saw it had created a crater in the sand. But nothing actually hit me.

When I was around 100 blocks from the light, I saw it was a village. A sand village. I ran faster towards it, sure that it was probably empty.

When I made it to the village, I ran over to a door, opened it, went inside and slammed the door shut. I set Stephanie's limp body down and leaned against the door, gasping for breath. Then, I looked up and saw people staring at me in shock. It quickly became awkward. Seconds later, I started hearing banging as the door began shuddering and I tried to hold back the mobs that were trying to get in.

"Uh... hello?" I started, hoping they would reply if they were friendly. One of them came forward. She had blond hair and wore a green shirt and a red skirt. Something about this person seemed somewhat familiar.

"Steve?" She asked. I knew she knew me, that was obvious. But who was she? I stared back blankly.

"Do you... remember me?" She asked cautiously, then continued, "I'm Jessie."

Then it all came back to me. I remembered the woman who had spoon-fed me applesauce when I first arrived at the village that was now overrun with mobs.

"Jessie! I remember you! You nursed me back to health!" I recalled.

"Yes." She then noticed Stephanie lying on the ground in front of me.

"Is that... Stephanie?" She gasped. I nodded.

"Now... how about a little hand here?" I requested, gesturing to the door. While Jessie ran to Stephanie, two of the other people came forward and brought out a long and wide wooden board and leaned it diagonally against the door and floorboards. The mobs kept beating at the door, but it didn't shudder nearly as bad. Then, Jessie turned to me.

"What happened!" She questioned.

"A Mutant Skeleton is what happened!" I answered. I hoped it was self-explanatory. She seemed to get the message.

"Can you help her?" I asked. She examined Stephanie's wound.

"I might, with the help of Dr. Jefferey and a little luck." She explained. Then she shook her head, "But we will still need something important."

"What is it?" I asked. She turned to me.

"... A Notch Apple." She said grimly. I was shocked. Notch Apples were one of the most expensive things to make. They required an apple and 8 BLOCKS of gold. They were used to heal the worst of diseases and wounds. Things had to be bad if we needed a Notch Apple.

"What! Where are we going to get all that gold!" I cried.

"The only way I can think of is by mining." She explained. I sighed.

"How long can she hold out?" I asked. She observed Stephanie's wounds.

"From the looks of the wound... without medical attention... I'd say not that long. The arrow is lodged directly in her heart. Without any help, she might not even last through the night. Not to mention what chemical was on that arrow." She calculated. My heart sank.

"What can we do?" I offered.

"Do you have any potions? Or a brewing stand?" She asked. I looked through my bag, moving the now-awake Zombie Piglett aside and found a potion of healing and regeneration. I must have got them by killing some witches a while ago. Then, I found a few blaze rods. Great! I could make a brewing stand with the blaze rods. I brought all those items out, plus the rest of the materials for the brewing stand.

"You have potions! Great! Hand it over." I gave the potions to her.

Then, I looked around for a crafting table and found one in my bag. I pulled it out, walked to a corner and place it at the corner. I put the materials in place and within a few seconds, they melted together and turn into a brewing stand. I picked up the stand and looked over to Stephanie. Jessie was pouring the health-replenishing potions into Stephanie's mouth. I looked through my bag for something I could brew a potion with. I found a glass bottle filled with water. Guess I didn't get to drink that in the Nether. I realized how thirsty I was. I restrained the urge to take a drink of the water. 'Stephanie needs it more than I do.' I told myself as I continued looking for something else. I remembered the Ghast I killed in the Nether. I remembered the tear it dropped when it died. I looked for the Ghast tear, knowing they are used for potions of regen.

After a few seconds of looking, I saw something white and tear-shaped and I knew it was the Ghast tear. I pulled it out. I found two more bottles, only they were empty.

"Do you guys have a fountain?" I asked.

"Yes but it's in the middle of town." A villager answered.

"I need to get to it. Now." I said.

"That's not a good idea. Not with all the mobs outside." Another replied.

"Yeah, besides, there's a high chance Steph will be fine until noon tomorrow with the potions. All we have to do is wait." Jessie explained.

"And if she isn't?" I asked her.

"The chances are extremely minimal. I've trained for years on medical situations like this!" Then Jessie's eyes widened, "Wait... you don't... you don't like her, do you?" She asked.

"What? No! Not in that way!" I felt my face burning as though I was in the Nether again. I honestly didn't like her, at least not in that way. I continued, "She's just a close friend to me. I just don't want her to die."

"Well, do what you want. But know that if you do go out there, it'll be likely that you won't live through the night."

"We'll kill all the mobs. Me and Goldy." I said confidently as the Zombie Piglett jumped on top of my head. I finally came up with a name for the undead Piglett. It seemed to like gold, so I named it after gold. The villagers all gasped.

"How did you befriend a baby Zombie Pigman?" Jessie blurted out.

"Long story." And I headed out, removing the wooden board as the mobs had given up trying to get in.

 **And there we have it. Steve has activated Hero Mode and is probably about to kick some ass. Now, you can totally tell this story was written ages ago because it was mentioned that Notch apples were crafted using an apple and 8 blocks of gold. It hasn't been that easy in years, at least not in Java edition(which is what my stories take place in), since Mojang removed the crafting recipe(I'm still miffed about that). I wanted to let some of you guys that read my ongoing story A Hero's Path(David's story) that I'm hoping to get the next chapter out next week. I don't typically like to leave deadlines because I don't do well under the pressure of one, but it's been around two weeks, time for me to push myself lol. I can upload these chapters much easier because I'm straight-up copy-pasting from the files and adding commentary to the beginnings and ends, but honestly it's just whenever I feel motivated that I upload. That being said, I certainly won't take as long to upload the next chapter. Also, we're one chapter away to the end of the 8 files I have. I stopped saving them to my disk at the end of my first book, and with much regret, I made an idiot decision years ago and chose to edit my second and third books so they would be more faithful to the actual story than the original(which didn't even work out), so I can't post them otherwise it'll be incredibly confusing. So, once I post the last chapter of what I have saved, that's the end of this series.**


	36. OG A Hero's Hope Chapter 12

Chapter 12

His Return

When I left the building, I looked around the area. I walked around, both looking for mobs and the fountain. I couldn't find any mobs, oddly. Then I finally found the fountain.

As I ran to the fountain, a figure suddenly appeared in front of me, covered in smoke. I stopped, my heart pumping from the sudden jumpscare. When the smoke faded, I saw a familiar man in blue. It was Herobrine.

"Herobrine!" I stumbled. Herobrine chuckled.

"Foolish Steve... you thought I wasn't going to bother you anymore? The Nether cannot trap me! It was only a matter of time before I returned to torment you." The demon smiled and levitated in the air, "And I intend to kill you sooner or later. I think I'll just let one of my minions have a little fun with you." He raised his palm and a ball of fire erupted in it. I raised my sword, preparing to block the attack. He threw the fireball to the ground under him and it crashed into the ground.

A few seconds later, bones started flying out of the ground and began to assemble. And not just any bones... wither bones. When the bones stopped assembling, a Wither Skeleton stood over me. It looked different than a normal Wither Skeleton, though. It wielded a giant pure black sword in one hand and a big shield with a skull in it in the other. It also had a sheath attached to its waist (bone?). It was about 6 blocks tall. It looked like a eviler version of the Mutant Skeleton, as if a Mutant Skeleton decided to become a swordsmob, painted itself completely dark grey and grew a few blocks.

Herobrine laughed, "Meet my Mutant Wither Skeleton. I made it myself. It's easily one of the most powerful mutants ever. You won't find these out in the open. You won't even find it in the Nether. It's one of a kind. And beware Steve, for it is the best swordsmob ever to exist, aside from maybe the Walker King. Take this." Suddenly, an iron shield appeared in my hand. Herobrine continued, "You'll need it. I will not have you fight a mob you stand no chance against." Then, Herobrine disappeared into smoke.

I turned to the Mutant Wither Skeleton and it whirred into action. It raised its sword and I brought my shield to my chest to protect myself. But it didn't attack. Instead, it brought its sword over to me. I realized maybe it wasn't intent on killing me viciously. Maybe even though we were enemies, it still acted dignified. That made me a little reluctant to kill it, but I had to... for Stephanie. I didn't want to play Herobrine's game but I had no chioce but to do so. Our swords crossed and our fight began.

We jumped away from each other. It held its shield up to its chest. I guessed trying the strategy I did on the Mutant Skeleton wouldn't work on this mutant.

Suddenly, as fast as a Wither shooting skulls, the Mutant Wither Skeleton struck. It moved its shield away from its chest and swung its huge sword downwards. I barely had time to dodge the swing. I jumped to the right. With that massive sword, blocking wasn't a smart option. It swung its sword again, this time aiming at my side. I ducked. It kept attacking me. I kept dodging out of the way.

Finally, I found an advantage I had. Sure it was much larger than me, but that meant I was more nimble than it. It couldn't hit me nearly as easily.

Suddenly, it went for a stab. Just in time, I raised my shield and barely deflected the stab. Then, I began to attack the Wither Skeleton. I swung my sword at the mutants legs as I couldn't reach anything higher than them. Everytime I hit it with my sword, a piece of its bones flew off. My mind changed into a battle sequence: swing, dodge, slash, duck, stab, sidestep, thrust and block.

Within moments, the Wither Skeleton King was on its knees. I stopped, feeling proud of my progress.

Suddenly, it screamed, emitting a cry so high-pitched and loud, I dropped my sword and shield and pressed my hands against my ears as hard as I could. But I could still hear it. It felt like I wasn't blocking out any of the earsplitting noise and my ears felt like they were peeling off. When the mutant was done screaming, it sank to the ground, completely exhausted. I quickly grabbed my sword and shield. The last time a mutant let out a roar... There was no reason why it would tire itself out with a scream unless something bad was going to happen.

Seconds later, I saw the ground ripple and ancient black bony fingers clawed at the air. I knew it, it was calling minions. Worse, they looked like Wither Skeletons, a powerful race of mobs. I assumed I had a few seconds before the Skeletons freed themselves so I looked through my bag, looking for a potion that could help me somehow. Thank Notch, I had a potion of strength. I couldn't even remember how I got it. I drank the strength potion and immediately felt twice as powerful. I readied my gear as the minions erupted from the ground.

There were at least 12 in all, but for some reason, only half ran at me. The other half ran to the Mutant Wither Skeleton. When they got to the mutant, they began holding onto the Mutant Wither Skeleton. Seconds later, I saw the normal Wither Skeletons transferring a strange grey aura to the mutant. Then I realized it must have been Wither-gas. Then they dissolved, their bones flying into the mutant. The mutant warrior got up and watched me.

Rattling bones snapped my attention back to the current threat. A stone sword flew at me. I raised my shield in self-defense. The sword bounced harmlessly off my shield. I swung back at the attacking Wither Skeleton. Its bones scattered the moment I made contact.

Another slashed at me and I sidestepped, countering by stabbing it. I stabbed it in the ribs. It fell apart. Another tried to jump-strike me. I brought my blade forth and the skeleton impaled itself on the sword and dissolved into Wither-dust, which dispersed.

I looked for the rest of the minions but they were gone. Then, I saw Goldy kill the last one.

"Wreeeeeeee!" Goldy squealed triumphantly. The Mutant Wither Skeleton looked at Goldy, then came for the swine warrior.

It ran at the baby Pigman and swung at it. Goldy dodged easily, it had an even greater size advantage against the Witherborn mutant than me. I rushed in, I wouldn't let that skeletal mutant hurt Goldy.

I lunged at the mutant and slashed, dealing a critical hit on its ribs. The Wither Skeleton mutant staggered back. I realized it didn't raise its shield. I swung again and hit it again, this time at the legs. It staggered back again. I swung once more, but this time it jumped back just in time to avoid my attack. Then, it jumped at me and swung its sword downward. I realized it was trying to jump-strike me too! I jumped to the left and dodged the attack.

I noticed when it landed, it jerked forward as though it was stabbed from behind. I looked at the mutant and saw Goldy climbing through its body, stabbing at random spots. The mutant jerked everytime Goldy stabbed it somewhere. The Mutant Wither Skeleton tried to yank the little Pigman off its back. It flailed around but the Piglett held on.

Then, it noticed a building and walked backwards to it. I realized what it was trying to do and ran after it.

When it got to the building, it brought its back (bone?) against the wall and crushed Goldy. I kept running, I refused to believe Goldy was dead... well... even more dead. I grabbed an enderpearl out of my bag. Then, I let out a shouting cry and threw the mystical pearl at its skull.

Right away, I teleported right on top of the mutants' head. It stepped away from the wall and grabbed at me. I raised my sword and brought it to the Mutant Wither Skeleton's skull, wrapping my legs around its neck. I stabbed the mutant in the head and it let out a high-pitched cry and staggered around, trying even harder to grab me. I held on, sinking my sword even deeper into its skull.

Thunk...

Finally, after several seconds, it fell to the ground, dead. Its body fell apart. Then, it shrunk to my size. I noticed something, it didn't turn into smoke as most mobs do. Actually, come to think of it, the Mutant Skeleton didn't turn into smoke, either. It just fell apart. I observed the bones. The bones looked like they could be put together for armor. I collected them all and put them in my bag. I noticed I still had the shield, so I put it in my bag as well.

Then, I remembered Goldy. I ran to the little Zombie Pigman and picked him up. He must have passed out but he thankfully didn't look too injured.

I remembered what I came here for and ran to the fountain. I got out a bottle and began filling it up. Then, I moved onto the next one and filled it up.

When I finished, I ran back to the house. I opened the door and went inside. I went over to the brewing stand and began brewing three potions of regen.

When I was finished, I went to Jessie, who was still caring for Stephanie. I handed her the regen. potions. She took them and trickled one into Stephanie's mouth.

"Is she going to be fine with the potions?" I asked. Jessie faced me.

"She'll last for a good week. That's a week to get a Notch Apple." That's amazing. She might actually make it. Maybe I could make the Notch Apple in time. I sighed, sat back and relaxed for the first time in forever. I deserved a rest.

End of Part 1

 **And there we have it. This is the end of Part 1, and also the last of my files. It's been amazing going back through these files that have been untouched for years. They're literal relics to me. Memories of a young, teenage youngster who was inspired by some Minecraft music video and fanfictions to make his own story. And I want to say thank you to the people who stayed to the very end as well. When I first started posting my chapters to this website, I didn't think that people would love it as much as they did. It does suck because by the time I was posting chapters to the site, I hadn't been writing chapters for my story in over a year. But, because of the amount of reception I got, I managed to write and finish the second part. It was all thanks to you guys, encouraging me to work when I had lost faith in my story. Even though it ultimately ended up going on hiatus, I couldn't be happier over the support I got from it. A Hero's Hope was the very first story I ever worked on, at least the very first I had taken completely seriously, and that's why to this day I continue to take inspiration from the characters, even though I created them. If any of you guys are considering writing your own stories, I highly encourage it! It can be really liberating, and in my case, after spending years on this whole timeline of events in a completely fictional universe, I was proud of what I had done. I'm normally a very shy and nervous person, but this story changed me a lot. It made me feel good about myself. If you want to write a story, go ahead! There's always an audience that is interested! Just don't lose hope when things seem down. It was hard for me very often along the way, there were many points when I thought to myself, '** ** _I sacrificed so much time on this and haven't gotten anything in return,_** **' but I never gave up. The goal was to get my work out there, for people around the world to see it and read it and enjoy it. And I succeeded, and that alone makes me so happy. I constantly think of everything that came from this first story as the sole reason I live and as the one thing I want to leave behind. Maybe not the healthiest mindset, but it's much better than believing that I had no value in the world and that no one cares about me as it was years ago.**

 **I currently do not have any plans to continue The Struggle For Survival, but I do hope that one day I can go back to it. It won't be for a long time, years will pass as I continue to write other stories. But maybe someday, I can go back to this series and continue what I consider to be the Ocarina of Time of my story's universe. I truly love this story, and I want to share it with you. There are so many things that happen in it, as well as its sequel, that never gets talked about at any other point in the timeline. A Hero's Hope is really unique in its own way, it's different in its own formula from the other stories I write. I'm just really glad that you guys got to enjoy it the way it was while it lasted. There were so many points when I thought I should just give up on writing as a hobby, but I'm so happy that I didn't. And yeah, I do know that the reason that A Hero's Hope got so many people to see it was because it was the standard** ** _Steve-vs-Herobrine_** **thing that's been written a million different ways by a million different people. But in the beginning, I wrote this story as a way of giving back to the Minecraft community, for all the fun and friends I had gotten from it. If I were to die, I'd do so content in the fact that I managed to create such a fascinating world, a world that might actually exist(if you believe in the multiverse theory, as I do). Don't worry, I don't have any plans of dying lol. But yeah, thank you all. I truly appreciate you guys. Here's my final plug about how you should check out my new book series, at the link down below(don't worry even if there's no dots, just a simple copy and paste onto google should bring you there, and it's even in dark mode!). I hope to see you guys there, on a new book series I'm really passionate about. Without further ado, A Hero's Hope has been concluded, for now...**

 **A Hero's Path link:** **www fanfiction net/s/13287852/1/A-Hero-s-Path**

 **Good night everyone!**


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